


Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Chapter Notes

by karoffelbrei89



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Archived From Tumblr, Harry Potter Meta, Meta, Meta Essay, Nonfiction, chapter notes, cross-posted from tumblr, hp meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:48:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 37
Words: 68,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23345008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karoffelbrei89/pseuds/karoffelbrei89
Summary: Part of my great Potter re-read, chapter notes to every book. Crossposting from tumblr (https://hufflly-puffs.tumblr.com).
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1: The Dark Lord Ascending

_**Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows** _

**Chapter 1: The Dark Lord Ascending**

  * Without checking, but I think this is the only book that I own that is dedicated to me. And well to everyone else, who stuck with Harry until the very end. It might be just a small thing, but I remember how much it meant to me, the first time I read Rowling’s dedication for her final book in the Potter series. Reading those books had felt like a long journey for me; read the first one with 11 and the last one with 18. Those books were my childhood/youth. And speaking of journeys: I started these chapter notes over a year ago, so this feels like another journey is ending soon.


  * We start the book again from an outsider POV, though with an omniscient narrator. The only other chapter written like that was “ _The Unbreakable Vow_ ” (book 6, Chapter 2) and both chapters revolve around the Death Eaters, and especially Snape. Given the ambiguous nature of Snape, and that his true loyalty is meant to remain a secret almost until the end, it makes of course sense we don’t get to see inside Snape’s mind, don’t know what he is thinking or feeling. Rowling remains an observer in this chapter, never commenting the events.


  * What we get is a great insight of the hierarchy Voldemort has built around him. His followers live in constant fear of him and see each other as competition for his approval. The moment one of them fails, one of them shows only the slightest weakness, they all turn against him or her. They remind me of a group of school bullies, letting out their own fear and anger on someone weak, an easy target, although of course the Death Eaters are far more dangerous.


  * We can already learn so much from those first moments when Snape and Yaxley arrive; their first instinct is to attack each other before they recognise who the other one is. They are both anxious because they are late, knowing that only good news will justify their lateness. Yaxley even says he hopes Voldemort will be satisfied. Clearly his cult is built on fear and punishment and the constant need to do better than the others, to show no weakness, to be no failure.


  * _“‘He always did himself well, Lucius. Peacocks …’ Yaxley thrust his wand back under his cloak with a snort.”_ – Ok, the fact that the Malfoys own a snow-white peacock is like something straight out of a fan fiction and how everyone imagined the Manor would look like, but that I never expected to be true.


  * _“As their eyes grew accustomed to the lack of light they were drawn upwards to the strangest feature of the scene: an apparently unconscious human figure hanging upside-down over the table, revolving slowly as if suspended by an invisible rope, and reflected in the mirror and in the bare, polished surface of the table below. None of the people seated underneath this singular sight was looking at it except for a pale young man sitting almost directly below it. He seemed unable to prevent himself from glancing upwards every minute or so.”_ – I wonder if Draco did know who the woman was? Did she look familiar to him? Obviously he wouldn’t have taken Muggle Studies, but still she was a teacher at Hogwarts, so it is possible he recognized her. Draco’s behaviour shows a clear difference between him and the rest of the Death Eaters. The others know to show no interest in that woman, no curiosity, or perhaps even pity. This might not be the first time Voldemort brings a “guest” so they already know what will happen soon. Draco though had a hard course of reality check lately. He knows that Dumbledore was right in saying he is not a killer, knows that he is not as cruel and sadistic like the other Death Eaters, but also in what kind of danger this puts him and his family, because in the eyes of Voldemort this is a weakness. And by the way Voldemort taunts Lucius and Draco he is fully aware of that.


  * _“‘Severus, here,’ said Voldemort, indicating the seat on his immediate right. ‘Yaxley – beside Dolohov.’ The two men took their allotted places. Most of the eyes around the table followed Snape and it was to him that Voldemort spoke first.”_ – It is very obvious that Snape is pretty high in this hierarchy. He is allowed to sit directly next to Voldemort, he is addressed first, and all the attention from the other Death Eaters is on him, because they know Voldemort favours Snape. Snape of course has been one of the most valuable spies, with access to the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore, and of course ultimately he is the one who killed Dumbledore. Of course for Dumbledore’s plan to succeed Voldemort needed to trust Snape and therefore Snape had to sacrifice almost everything. He needed to give Voldemort important information about the Order. It is possible Snape is the one who gave the Death Eaters information about Emmeline Vance, resulting in her death, sacrificing her for a greater plan. He now will give Voldemort the right information about the date Harry will leave the Dursleys, obviously putting Harry (and everyone else who tries to protect him) at risk. He has to in order to remain Voldemort’s most trusted follower; it is a very calculated risk.


  * _“‘Saturday … at nightfall,’ repeated Voldemort. His red eyes fastened upon Snape’s black ones with such intensity that some of the watchers looked away, apparently fearful that they themselves would be scorched by the ferocity of the gaze. Snape, however, looked calmly back into Voldemort’s face and, after a moment or two, Voldemort’s lipless mouth curved into something like a smile. ‘Good. Very good. And this information comes –’ ‘From the source we discussed,’ said Snape.”_ – First of all we never learn who that source is. We later learn that Snape knew about the right date because Dumbledore (or rather his portrait) had told him, but I doubt he told Voldemort that, so he had to find someone else to present Voldemort as a reliable source. Second, short appreciation for the badass-Occlumens Snape is, never revealing to Voldemort his true motivation/loyalty.


  * Yaxley gives Voldemort a different date for Harry’s departure from the Dursleys, but it is obvious that Voldemort favours Snape and trusts his information more, or perhaps he thinks Snape’s source is more reliable than Yaxley’s. We also learn that the Death Eaters have by now infiltrated the Ministry of Magic and plan to overtake the Ministry. This will obviously give them much more control over the Wizarding World, as it gives them more tools of surveillance and the ability to change the law. Obviously Voldemort does not care if what he does is illegal, but it still makes a difference if you can rule your terror regime within the law. Fascist parties will always be more dangerous if they act legally, if their power is supported by the law they created. Because even though not everyone is as radical as Voldemort and the Death Eaters this new regime will have enough followers who share enough of the mindset of Voldemort to tag along. And yet Voldemort will never be in the open. He does not make himself Minister of Magic, but instead uses marionettes to do his work for him. He does not need to be in the open, because the whole time he is in the one in power. He knows that people fear him, but also the outright hate he creates. As long as he remains in the shadow people can silence their conscience because after all they don’t follow Voldemort.


  * Also, while Snape gives away the correct date of Harry’s departure (he has to for Voldemort to trust him) he does not reveal which member of the Order will take Harry in until his birthday. Of course it is possible he simply does not know, but maybe it is again calculated risk. Give away one vital information but keep another a secret. (And as we later learn, the plan to protect Harry – the seven Potters – came from Snape as well)


  * _“Many of those sitting around Yaxley looked impressed; his neighbour, Dolohov, a man with a long, twisted face, clapped him on the back.”_ – Awww. I think this the closet kind of affection we will ever see between two Death Eaters.


  * _“Again, Voldemort looked up at the slowly revolving body as he went on, ‘I shall attend to the boy in person. There have been too many mistakes where Harry Potter is concerned. Some of them have been my own. That Potter lives is due more to my errors, than to his triumphs.’ […]‘I have been careless, and so have been thwarted by luck and chance, those wreckers of all but the best laid plans. But I know better now. I understand those things that I did not understand before. I must be the one to kill Harry Potter, and I shall be.’”_ – It is interesting that Voldemort blames himself, that he makes his own errors responsible for the fact that Harry still lives. But obviously the only reason why he would admit failure is to lessen Harry’s impact. Harry did not survive because he might be the better wizard, because he has powers Voldemort does not, but simply because Voldemort made mistakes. The only way he could survive was because Voldemort had been careless. There is no other way Voldemort can explain to himself why Harry is still alive, a teenage boy who is not even fully educated compared to the greatest wizard of all time. It seems like Voldemort by now has heard the full prophecy (perhaps Snape told him, because by now it does no longer make a difference), because he insists he is the one to kill Harry. But it also seems like he ignores the part where the prophecy says Harry has a power Voldemort does not know about, because to Voldemort that simply is not possible.


  * _“The faces around him displayed nothing but shock; he might have announced that he wanted to borrow one of their arms. ‘No volunteers?’ said Voldemort. ‘Let’s see … Lucius, I see no reason for you to have a wand any more.’”_ – A lot of book 7 revolves around wand lore, the importance of a wand and the ownership of a wand and how it can change. It is very obvious that none of the Death Eaters wants to give away their wand voluntary – without a wand you are defenceless, powerless, in short no longer a wizard. Demanding Lucius’s wand is the ultimate humiliation for him. Voldemort insists Lucius has no longer a need for a wand, therefore saying he no longer sees him as a wizard – he is worthless. The low standing of the Malfoy family is symbolized by the fact that during the following year they will all lose their wand (Lucius’s wand is destroyed, Draco’s taken by Harry and Narcissa gives hers to her son).


  * _“Malfoy glanced sideways at his wife. She was staring straight ahead, quite as pale as he was, her long, blonde hair hanging down her back, but beneath the table her slim fingers closed briefly on his wrist. At her touch, Malfoy put his hand into his robes, withdrew a wand and passed it along to Voldemort, who held it up in front of his red eyes, examining it closely.”_ – Let’s be clear here: Narcissa is without a doubt the strongest, most capable of the Malfoys. She is the one holding this family together. She will be the one who has ultimately the nerve to lie to Voldemort just to save her son. We stan.


  * _“‘I have given you your liberty, Lucius, is that not enough for you? But I have noticed that you and your family seem less than happy of late … what is it about my presence in your home that displeases you, Lucius?’”_ – I think Dumbledore was right in assuming Lucius was safer in Azkaban than he is now, even though he is free. Using the Manor as a base is yet another punishment for the Malfoys. And I always liked the fan fics who would later explore the idea of Draco being unable to return home because of what happened there, how tainted the place became he had once called home.


  * _“She sat beside her sister, as unlike her in looks, with her dark hair and heavily lidded eyes, as she was in bearing and demeanour; where Narcissa sat rigid and impassive, Bellatrix leaned towards Voldemort, for mere words could not demonstrate her longing for closeness.”_ – I don’t think it has ever been addressed if Narcissa had been a Death Eater as well, but I don’t think so. Of course both her husband and her son are, so she is in this mess as well regardless. But while she shares the thought that Muggleborn wizards and witches do not belong in the Wizarding World, she has never been as devoted as her sister. She only cares about the well-being of her family, especially her son, and she does not care on what side she has to be in order to protect him.


  * _“There was an eruption of jeering laughter from around the table. Many leaned forward to exchange gleeful looks; a few thumped the table with their fists. The great snake, disliking the disturbance, opened its mouth wide and hissed angrily, but the Death Eaters did not hear it, so jubilant were they at Bellatrix and the Malfoys’ humiliation. Bellatrix’s face, so recently flushed with happiness, had turned an ugly, blotchy red.”_ – As I said, the Death Eaters use every opportunity to turn against one of their own, the weakest link, the easiest victim. And especially Bellatrix used to brag about how close she is to Voldemort, how deep her devotion is, so to see her humiliated by Voldemort himself is greeted with a lot of spite and malice.


  * _“‘What say you, Draco?’ asked Voldemort, and though his voice was quiet, it carried clearly through the catcalls and jeers. ‘Will you babysit the cubs?’”_ – I admit I have a soft spot for fan fics where Harry and Draco babysit Teddy together. And I do wonder if after the war Draco had contact with Andromeda and Teddy, and Narcissa as well, trying to heal some old wounds.


  * _“‘Many of our oldest family trees become a little diseased over time,’ he said, as Bellatrix gazed at him, breathless and imploring. ‘You must prune yours, must you not, to keep it healthy? Cut away those parts that threaten the health of the rest.’ ‘Yes, my Lord,’ whispered Bellatrix, and her eyes swam with tears of gratitude again. ‘At the first chance!’”_ – And this is the reason why Bellatrix became so obsessed with the idea of killing Tonks. She makes her responsible for her falling out with Voldemort, believing that if she cuts away the rotten part of her family she can redeem herself.


  * _“Charity Burbage revolved to face Snape again. ‘Severus … please … please …’”_ – Which of course are the exact same last words Dumbledore said to Snape.


  * _“‘Silence,’ said Voldemort, with another twitch of Malfoy’s wand, and Charity fell silent as if gagged. ‘Not content with corrupting and polluting polluting the minds of wizarding children, last week Professor Burbage wrote an impassioned defence of Mudbloods in the Daily Prophet. Wizards, she says, must accept these thieves of their knowledge and magic. The dwindling of the pure-bloods is, says Professor Burbage, a most desirable circumstance … she would have us all mate with Muggles … or, no doubt, werewolves …’”_ – Isn’t it fascinating to listen to those words, knowing that Voldemort’s mother ‘mated’ with a Muggle, that Voldemort himself grew up like a Muggle, so he as well ‘stole’ knowledge. Yes, he is the heir of Slytherin, but he did not grow up in a wizarding family, he did not know about the Wizarding World until he attended Hogwarts, he is more familiar with the Muggle world than all those pureblood wizards sitting at his table. Following his own thoughts he himself would not have to right to be part of the Wizarding World.




	2. Chapter 2: In Memoriam

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 2: In Memoriam**

  * _“It was stupid, pointless, irritating beyond belief, that he still had four days left of being unable to perform magic … but he had to admit to himself that this jagged cut in his finger would have defeated him. He had never learned how to repair wounds and now he came to think of it – particularly in light of his immediate plans – this seemed a serious flaw in his magical education. Making a mental note to ask Hermione how it was done, he used a large wad of toilet paper to mop up as much of the tea as he could, before returning to his bedroom and slamming the door behind him.”_ – Let’s be real: without Hermione neither Harry or Ron would have survived a single day on their journey. And remember that Harry originally had planned to hunt down the remaining Horcruxes alone? Even now, knowing that both Ron and Hermione will join him, he is utterly unprepared. It is not just the fact that he doesn’t know how to heal a cut (how is it possible they haven’t learnt that by now?). When they are attacked during the wedding and have to flee only Hermione was smart enough to pack in advance and have everything ready and always at her side (yes, I’m talking about the magical handbag). Sure, Harry packs things as well, but it obviously didn’t cross his mind that they might have to escape immediately, or to use a spell on his rucksack, giving it more space, or to pack such things as a tent. I think it is fair to say Hermione is the real saviour of the Wizarding World.


  * _“Harry had spent the morning completely emptying his school trunk for the first time since he had packed it six years ago. At the start of the intervening school years, he had merely skimmed off the topmost three quarters of the contents and replaced or updated them, leaving a layer of general debris at the bottom – old quills, desiccated beetle eyes, single socks that no longer fitted. Minutes previously Harry had plunged his hand into this mulch, experienced a stabbing pain in the fourth finger of his right hand and withdrawn it to see a lot of blood.”_ – Serves him right for being so messy. I mean if he had never completely emptied his trunk in six years this also means the thing hasn’t been cleaned for so long. Just… yuck.


  * _“As he neared the bottom of the pile of newspapers, Harry slowed down, searching for one particular edition which he knew had arrived shortly after he had returned to Privet Drive for the summer; he remembered that there had been a small mention on the front about the resignation of Charity Burbage, the Muggle Studies teacher at Hogwarts.” –_ Harry will leave later that day, which means it is now the next Saturday Snape had told Voldemort about. In the Skeeter interview it is mentioned that Dumbledore has died roughly four weeks ago. The timeline for Charity Burbage is then that she shortly after Dumbledore’s death resigned, then some time later wrote an article for the Daily Prophet, before the Death Eaters or perhaps Voldemort himself took her and then killed her. At first I thought her resignation was forced by the Death Eaters, but the timing would not be right for that. So she did resign voluntary, perhaps thinking Hogwarts was no longer safe without Dumbledore there or unsure if the school would re-open again.


  * After reading Dumbledore’s obituary Harry realizes how little he knew about Dumbledore and his life and how odd it seems to imagine him as a young man or student. I think we all have problems to imagine our parents or grandparents (Dumbledore was a parental figure for Harry) as anything other than that, to imagine they had a life well before us, that they were young as well, or in Dumbledore’s case fallible. The natural distance between a teacher and a student resulted in Harry never asking about his private life; it would have felt disrespectful. And even though Dumbledore is dead by now his ghost follows Harry on his journey and oddly enough we learn much more about Dumbledore now, post mortem, than in the previous six books while he was still alive.


  * _“Albus never attempted to deny that his father (who was to die in Azkaban) had committed this crime; […]”_ – There is a very personal reason why Dumbledore was against Azkaban in his current form. He never denied that his father committed a crime and he would have possibly agreed that his father deserved some kind of punishment as well, but not Azkaban, not the Dementors, not the prospect of losing your soul (though we don’t know for sure if Percival had been convicted to the Dementor’s Kiss as well). The punishment should always fit the crime and no crime justifies to lose your soul.


  * _“Those of us who were privileged to be his friends benefited from his example, not to mention his help and encouragement, with which he was always generous. He confessed to me in later life that he knew even then that his greatest pleasure lay in teaching.”_ – Sounds a bit like Hermione, doesn’t it? And of course Harry taught classmates DADA for nearly an entire school year as well. But guess who later became a teacher? None of them.


  * _“Dumbledore’s future career seemed likely to be meteoric, and the only question that remained was when he would become Minister for Magic. Though it was often predicted in later years that he was on the point of taking the job, however, he never had Ministerial ambitions.”_ – Of course Dumbledore did not become a teacher just because he enjoyed teaching but also because he realized that he is unfit for any kind of power. Power is what corrupted Grindelwald and later Voldemort, what had almost corrupted Dumbledore as well. Of course being the headmaster of Hogwarts gave him some power as well, but not in the way any political tenure would have given him. And he later tells Harry that does are best suited for power who never desired it; people like Harry.


  * _“He died as he lived: working always for the greater good and, to his last hour, as willing to stretch out a hand to a small boy with dragon pox as he was on the day that I met him.”_ – Obviously Elphias Doge doesn’t know the exact circumstances of Dumbledore’s death, but there is some truth right here. Right before his death Dumbledore had offered his help to another boy in need: Draco.


  * _“He had never thought to ask Dumbledore about his past. No doubt it would have felt strange, impertinent even, but after all, it had been common knowledge that Dumbledore had taken part in that legendary duel with Grindelwald, and Harry had not thought to ask Dumbledore what that had been like, nor about any of his other famous achievements. No, they had always discussed Harry, Harry’s past, Harry’s future, Harry’s plans … and it seemed to Harry now, despite the fact that his future was so dangerous and so uncertain, that he had missed irreplaceable opportunities when he had failed to ask Dumbledore more about himself, […]”_ \- We do learn a bit more about Grindelwald and his relationship to Dumbledore, but there is still a blank space concerning the time Grindelwald rose to power, which by now the “Fantastic Beasts”-movies will cover. Given his friendship/romantic feelings towards Grindelwald I wonder how open Dumbledore would have been if Harry had ever asked him about him, if he would have told him about his own guilt and responsibility. In the obituary it is mentioned that Dumbledore hardly ever spoke about his family, especially his sister, so it is possible Harry wouldn’t have gotten an answer anyway. The shame about what he had done had made Dumbledore silent.


  * _“Skeeter was certainly quick off the mark. Her nine-hundred page book was completed a mere four weeks after Dumbledore’s mysterious death in June. I ask her how she managed this super-fast feat.”_ – Look Rita Skeeter is a horrible person and all, but writing 900 hundred pages in 4 weeks? That demands respect.


  * _“‘Oh, Aberforth is just the tip of the dungheap,’ laughs Skeeter. ‘No, no, I’m talking about much worse than a brother with a fondness for fiddling about with goats, […]” –_ You know what, I actually don’t wanna know exactly what Aberforth did with those goats.


  * _“‘Oh yes,’ says Skeeter, nodding briskly, ‘I devote an entire chapter to the whole Potter–Dumbledore relationship. It’s been called unhealthy, even sinister. Again, your readers will have to buy my book for the whole story, but there is no question that Dumbledore took an unnatural interest in Potter from the word go. Whether that was really in the boy’s best interests – well, we’ll see. It’s certainly an open secret that Potter has had a most troubled adolescence.’”_ – The thing about Skeeter’s book is, no matter how nasty it is, in clearly written with the intention to destroy Dumbledore’s reputation, there is some truth in it. Skeeter did not make up his relationship with Grindelwald for example, though she obviously portrays everything very biased. The same goes for Harry’s relationship with Dumbledore, but the thing is, it was unhealthy. Dumbledore did manipulate Harry. And Harry is someone who has blind faith in the people he cares about. He put Sirius pedestal and he does the same now with Dumbledore. It doesn’t help either that he feels responsible for both deaths, that he thinks they both died protecting him. However, also through Skeeter’s book, Harry is forced to look different at Dumbledore, more objective, to start to question him. Dumbledore is neither a villain nor a saint, but just as Snape, just as Harry, a rather complex character.


  * _“‘Well, I don’t want to say too much – it’s all in the book – but eye witnesses inside Hogwarts Castle saw Potter running away from the scene moments after Dumbledore fell, jumped or was pushed. Potter later gave evidence against Severus Snape, a man against whom he has a notorious grudge. Is everything as it seems? That is for the wizarding community to decide – once they’ve read my book.’”_ – So the public is not informed about the exact circumstances of Dumbledore’s death. I wonder why, as he was a very public figure and a crime was committed, plus the fact that there is an eye-witness. Why is Harry’s testimony not enough to justify an investigation against Snape? Is it because the Ministry is infiltrated by the Death Eaters? Of course once the entire Ministry is under Voldemort’s control they will tell their version of the truth: that Harry was somewhat involved in Dumbledore’s death and later accused Snape.


  * _“He had imagined it, there was no other explanation; imagined it, because he had been thinking of his dead Headmaster. If anything was certain, it was that the bright blue eyes of Albus Dumbledore would never pierce him again.”_ – This is such a red herring. At this point I really thought that Dumbledore would somehow come back. Of course we will see him again (in Harry’s mind), but this line suggests that perhaps there is more to his death, that it was all part of his plan and he survived somehow. Even Harry starts to question Dumbledore’s death later. And then he will see those bright blue eyes, but they belong to Aberforth. Just as Snape will see Lily’s eyes again, but they belong to Harry. Familiar, but not the same.




	3. Chapter 3: The Dursleys Departing

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_ **

**Chapter 3: The Dursleys Departing**

  * I don’t think Vernon Dursley ever realised in what kind of danger both Harry and his own family are in. Of course Harry never shared his trauma with any of his remaining relatives; it was only because Dudley and he got attacked by Dementors that he told them about Voldemort being back in the first place. I don’t believe Petunia ever talked with Vernon about the Wizarding World either, nevertheless the trauma/shock and grief her sister’s passing caused. Both Petunia and Dudley are more aware of the danger they are in. Petunia because of the things she did learn about the Wizarding World and Dudley because he got attacked by a Dementor. However Petunia remains completely passive, leaving her husband in control to decide whether they will leave Privet Drive or not. Twice she took a stand, first when she decided to take baby Harry in, second after the Dementor attack and Dumbledore’s howler, telling her husband that Harry has to stay. Now though as the protective charm that keeps Harry and therefore the Dursleys safe comes to an end, she did her duty. She kept Harry safe as long as possible, but is passive when it comes to the decision to keep her own family safe. In the end it is because Dudley is scared enough that they decide to leave.
  * _‘It’s all a lot of claptrap,’ said Uncle Vernon, glaring at Harry with piggy little eyes. ‘I’ve decided I don’t believe a word of it. […]”_ – That might be the most Vernon Dursley-ish thing he ever said. He is presented with facts, yet he decided not to believe them. You can already tell Vernon dursley is the kind of man who will deny climate change and will vote for the Brexit.
  * _“‘– Kingsley and Mr Weasley explained it all as well,’ Harry pressed on remorselessly. ‘Once I’m seventeen, the protective charm that keeps me safe will break, and that exposes you as well as me. The Order is sure Voldemort will target you, whether to torture you to try and find out where I am, or because he thinks by holding you hostage I’d come and try to rescue you.’ Uncle Vernon’s and Harry’s eyes met. Harry was sure that in that instant they were both wondering the same thing.”_ – It is quite telling about their relationship that they both seem to wonder whether Harry would rescue the Dursleys or not. Vernon perhaps does not think Harry would, not because he thinks he might not deserve to be rescued after years of abuse, but rather because he does not know what kind of man his nephew is. Because there is no doubt Harry would rescue them, that despite everything he had to suffer through he wants them safe. It is not about whether they deserve it or not but rather being a decent human being. Which Harry, unlike his uncle, is.
  * _“‘Well, then, why can’t they [the Ministry of Magic] protect us? It seems to me that, as innocent victims, guilty of nothing more than harbouring a marked man, we ought to qualify for government protection!’ Harry laughed; he could not help himself. It was so very typical of his uncle to put his hopes in the establishment, even within this world that he despised and mistrusted.”_ – Harry learned the hard way not to trust the establishment, that politicians do whatever they can to remain in power, not necessarily the right thing. The Ministry, Hogwarts, every public institution, the press, they all will be infiltrated by Death Eaters soon. Harry acts outside the law. The Dursleys however believe in rules, they believe in the law, that if they do as they told nothing bad will happen to them.
  * _“‘Exactly – he’s the best!’ said Uncle Vernon, pointing at the blank television screen. The Dursleys had spotted Kingsley on the news, walking along discreetly behind the Muggle Prime Minister as he visited a hospital. This, and the fact that Kingsley had mastered the knack of dressing like a Muggle, not to mention a certain reassuring something in his slow, deep voice, had caused the Dursleys to take to Kingsley in a way that they had certainly not done with any other wizard, although it was true that they had never seen him with his earring in.”_ – It is interesting that Kingsley Shacklebolt of all people is the one wizard the Dursleys seem to respect because… well he is black. And look the Dursleys are the exact kind of people who are racist, maybe not in the open, but in that everyday casual racism that you get away with. And that is one of the issues that I have with the Potter books, that racism kind of doesn’t exist. Sure we have wizards like Voldemort and his followers who judge people based on their blood status, and the terror regime they will build is sickeningly similar to the Nazi regime. But why would racism not exist in the Wizarding World? A Muggleborn wizard/witch, coming from a racist family, would surely judge others based on their heritage. We also don’t know if homophobia, transphobia, ableism etc exist in the Wizarding World because we never get to know a queer character or a disabled character. The Potter books preach tolerance, yet Rowling ignores forms of intolerance and discrimination from our world, that would very likely still exist in the Wizarding World as well.
  * _“The prospect of parting – probably forever – from his aunt, uncle and cousin was one that he was able to contemplate quite cheerfully, but there was nevertheless a certain awkwardness in the air. What did you say to one another at the end of sixteen years’ solid dislike?”_ – I don’t think Harry believes he will never see his relatives again, because he has no intention to do so, but rather because he is aware of the very real reality that he might die in his quest to bring down Voldemort. And again, this is something he can’t share with his relatives. They assume he will be somewhere safe as well, so when they say goodbye to him they are not even aware that this could be their final goodbye. Though I don’t think it would have changed anything, too much has happened between them to fix this relationship.
  * _“Back in his bedroom, Harry fiddled aimlessly with his rucksack, then poked a couple of owl nuts through the bars of Hedwig’s cage. They fell with dull thuds to the bottom, where she ignored them. ‘We’re leaving soon, really soon,’ Harry told her. ‘And then you’ll be able to fly again.’”_ – That of course is a lie. Which Rowling knew very well while writing this. Rude.
  * _“‘I don’t think you’re a waste of space.’ If Harry had not seen Dudley’s lips move, he might not have believed it. As it was, he stared at Dudley for several seconds before accepting that it must have been his cousin who had spoken; for one thing, Dudley had turned red. Harry was embarrassed and astonished himself.”_ – You know what this is called: growth. Seriously though, I always loved that scene. It doesn’t seem like much, but coming from Dudley it is. Dudley who had never learned to say thank you, who always took everything in his life for granted. And here he is, acknowledging that Harry saved his life (it only took him two years) and showing concern for his cousin. Dudley, as it seems, is aware of the danger they are in, but not Harry’s role in it. If his family gets the best protection it should include Harry as well. He does not understand Harry’s role in the upcoming war, but how should he? It is not something his family talks about. Either way, I like to imagine Dudley and Harry meet again after the war, starting new.
  * _“She stopped and looked back. For a moment Harry had the strangest feeling that she wanted to say something to him: she gave him an odd, tremulous look and seemed to teeter on the edge of speech, but then, with a little jerk of her head, she bustled out of the room after her husband and son.”_ – The ever so complicated relationship between Petunia and Harry. We do learn a bit more about her and her relationship to Lily through Snape’s memories. She did love her sister, but felt as though the Wizarding World took her away, first metaphorically, than through her death literary. Harry is a reminder of her sister and her loss, feelings she probably never articulated. 16 years of silence, of supressed emotions, leading to this parting scene. She is unable to express herself, to show even the slightest form of affection towards Harry or support. In that way her son was braver than her.




	4. Chapter 4: The Seven Potters

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_ **

**Chapter 4: The Seven Potters**

  * _“The light was fading rapidly now, the hall full of shadows in the evening light. It felt most strange to stand here in the silence and know that he was about to leave the house for the last time. Long ago, when he had been left alone while the Dursleys went out to enjoy themselves, the hours of solitude had been a rare treat: pausing only to sneak something tasty from the fridge he had rushed upstairs to play on Dudley’s computer, or put on the television and flicked through the channels to his heart’s content. It gave him an odd, empty feeling to remember those times; it was like remembering a younger brother whom he had lost.”_ – I think we all look back at our childhoods, thinking how much easier those times were, what little it took to make us happy, how innocent we were. Harry especially has always been forced to grow up much faster than others at his age. With Dumbledore’s death and the realization what he had to do now, he had lost the last piece of his childhood. Leaving his childhood home (no matter how many unhappy memories there are), becoming off age, are both symbolic acts of Harry being an adult now. But most of us don’t stop being a child just because we are off age and/or move out; it is a gradual process that takes some time. Harry never had this time. He was forced to grow up in order to survive. And now he feels like his childhood is a separate part of him, one he had lost forever.
  * _“‘And under here, Hedwig –’ Harry pulled open a door under the stairs ‘– is where I used to sleep! You never knew me then – blimey, it’s small, I’d forgotten …’”_ – I think I told this story before, but I’m gonna tell it again: when I was 11 and had just read my first Potter book I wanted to spend a night in my cupboard as well. If Harry could do it so could I. I lasted about 10 minutes.
  * _“‘Harry, guess what?’ said Tonks from her perch on top of the washing machine, and she wiggled her left hand at him; a ring glittered there. ‘You got married?’ Harry yelped, looking from her to Lupin.”_ – Remember how Mrs Weasley thought Bill and Fleur were moving on too fast? I mean Lupin and Tonks technically started dating the night Dumbledore died, so they’ve been together for a month now. Given that Teddy was born in April it is possible that Tonks is already pregnant, though I doubt that is the reason they got married that fast, because even in the Wizarding World it seems unlikely you know that early about your pregnancy. However I always wondered how happy this marriage really was, as it always seemed like Lupin believed he did not deserve to be happy and was a burden to his wife.
  * _“‘As Dedalus probably told you, we had to abandon Plan A. Pius Thicknesse has gone over, which gives us a big problem. He’s made it an imprisonable offence to connect this house to the Floo Network, place a Portkey here or Apparate in or out. All done in the name of your protection, to prevent You-Know-Who getting in at you. Absolutely pointless, seeing as your mother’s charm does that already. What he’s really done is to stop you getting out of here safely. ‘Second problem: you’re under-age, which means you’ve still got the Trace on you.’”_ – I still don’t get why they abandoned Plan A. Plan A was that Moody alone would go to Privet Drive and apparate with Harry from there somewhere safe. So yeah, they would know that Harry left the place and magic was used, but they still could not tell where Harry would be. It is however possible that Thicknesse put the same spell on Privet Drive that Dumbledore put on Hogwarts, making it simply impossible to apparate in or out. The Floo Network is of course monitored by the Ministry. But what about Portkeys? You can transform any object into a portkey without the Ministry informed about it or the final destination of said Portkey. Again though it is possible that if a spell exists that keeps you from apparating in or out of a place there might be also a spell that keeps Portkeys from working. Still, it is a bit muddy what the Ministry can monitor in which way or how exactly the Trace works.
  * _“‘Now, your mother’s charm will only break under two conditions: when you come of age, or –’ Moody gestured around the pristine kitchen ‘– you no longer call this place home. You and your aunt and uncle are going your separate ways tonight, in the full understanding that you’re never going to live together again, correct?’”_ – Isn’t it interesting how ‘home’ is defined for this charm to work? It is a place where Harry lives with his relatives, a place he needs to return to once a year, no matter how short the time. It does not however matter if Harry defines this place as his home; to him Hogwarts is or rather was his home. Home is where the heart is, but not in this case.
  * _“So this time, when you leave, there’ll be no going back, and the charm will break the moment you get outside its range.”_ – How large exactly is this range? Does it only contain the house and the property it is on or more? When Harry wandered around in Little Whinging did the charm still work or could Voldemort have attacked him back then? We know that Lily and James could not leave their house in Godric’s Hollow because the Fidelius Charm did not allow it, but Dumbledore never told Harry such a thing, so I guess the range of the charm contained more than just the Dursley’s house.
  * _“’Even You-Know-Who can’t split himself into seven.’ Harry caught Hermione’s eye and looked away at once.”_ – Well, actually… But whereas Voldemort split his soul in 7 parts in order to protect himself, Harry has 6 people pretending to be him in order to protect him. 7 Horcruxes vs 7 Potters.
  * _“Harry dropped the hair into the mud-like liquid. The moment it made contact with its surface the Potion began to froth and smoke then, all at once, it turned a clear, bright gold. ‘Ooh, you look much tastier than Crabbe and Goyle, Harry,’ said Hermione, before catching sight of Ron’s raised eyebrows, blushing slightly and saying, ‘oh, you know what I mean – Goyle’s Potion looked like bogies.’”_ – Yeah, when you use the potion to turn into a bad person it looks disgusting but if you use it to turn into a good person it looks all shinny. Just as you can tell a person is evil because they are not attractive. It is such an overused cliché and quite frankly really hurtful and unfortunately Rowling is guilty of using it multiple times.
  * _“The real Harry thought that this might just be the most bizarre thing he had ever seen, and he had seen some extremely odd things. He watched as his six doppelgängers rummaged in the sacks, pulling out sets of clothes, putting on glasses, stuffing their own things away. He felt like asking them to show a little more respect for his privacy as they all began stripping off with impunity, clearly much more at ease with displaying his body than they would have been with their own. ‘I knew Ginny was lying about that tattoo,’ said Ron, looking down at his bare chest.”_ – Wait, did Ron and Harry never saw each other naked or at least in underwear? They shared a dormitory for six years. And that also means that Ron was convinced that his sister had seen Harry’s naked chess. And while I would have no problem with my close friends seeing me in underwear (or naked) I would feel highly uncomfortable as well to see 6 versions of myself undressing in front of me.
  * _“‘An’ you’re with me, Harry. That all righ’?’ said Hagrid, looking a little anxious. ‘We’ll be on the bike, brooms an’ Thestrals can’t take me weight, see. ’Not a lot o’ room on the seat with me on it, though, so you’ll be in the sidecar.’ ‘That’s great,’ said Harry, not altogether truthfully.”_ – Based on the pairings I would have assumed the real Harry is with Moody, because he is the most experienced Auror and because they travelled by broom, something Harry is particular good at. Which later turns out to be true: Moody and Mundugus are the first ones Voldemort chases after. Hagrid on the other hand is the least skilled wizard and the motorbike isn’t as agile as a broom. I think he is the last one they expect to escort the real Harry; a calculated risk.
  * _“On every side broomsticks were leaping into hands; Hermione had already been helped up on to a great, black Thestral by Kingsley; Fleur on to the other by Bill.”_ – I’m pretty sure Kingsley can see Thestrals, given his job, but what about Fleur and Bill? It would make sense that at least one of them can see them, but as Fleur needs help from Bill it is more likely he can see Thestrals than her.
  * _“‘The very same,’ said Hagrid, beaming down at Harry. ‘An’ the last time you was on it, Harry, I could fit yeh in one hand!’”_ – Harry is leaving Privet Drive the exact same way he arrived there, nearly sixteen years before.
  * _“A wall, a solid brick wall, erupted out of the exhaust pipe. Craning his neck, Harry saw it expand into being in mid-air. Three of the Death Eaters swerved and avoided it, but the fourth was not so lucky: he vanished from view and then dropped like a boulder from behind it, his broomstick broken into pieces. One of his fellows slowed up to save him, but they and the airborne wall were swallowed by darkness as Hagrid leaned low over the handlebars and sped up.” –_ Somehow the idea of Death Eaters helping each other seems odd to me, given their behaviour during Voldemort’s meeting in the first chapter. They all just fight for their own, everyone in competition with each other, trying to be Voldemort’s favourite. Perhaps though Voldemort does not like it to lose one of his followers like this. During the battle in Hogwarts however, the night Dumbledore died, they did not seem to care if one of their curses hit their own men.
  * _“Harry responded with further Stunning Spells: red and green collided in mid-air in a shower of multi-coloured sparks and Harry thought wildly of fireworks, and the Muggles below who would have no idea what was happening –“_ – Next time you see a firework it might just be wizards duelling mid-air.
  * _“He shot another blocking jinx at them: the closest Death Eater swerved to avoid it and his hood slipped, and by the red light of his next Stunning Spell, Harry saw the strangely blank face of Stanley Shunpike – Stan –“_ – Stan of course is under the influence of the Imperius Curse. Unlike Thicknesse however Stan is in no position of power, there is seemingly no reason why the Death Eaters use him as a marionette. We know he has been imprisoned unjustified, so when the Death Eaters broke out their fellows from Azkaban they decided to use Stan as well, perhaps as someone expendable for risky jobs.
  * _“‘Hagrid!’ Harry called, holding on to the bike for dear life, ‘Hagrid – accio Hagrid!’”_ – Can you actually summon a living being? And is there a weight limit?




	5. Chapter 5: Fallen Warrior

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 5: Fallen Warrior**

  * _“Now Harry understood why Voldemort had vanished; it had been at the point when the motorbike crossed the barrier of the Order’s charms. He only hoped they would continue to work: he imagined Voldemort, a hundred yards above them as they spoke, looking for a way to penetrate what Harry visualised as a great, transparent bubble.”_ – You are confusing reality with a Stephen King novel again, Harry.


  * _“As she moved forwards into the room, Mrs Tonks’s resemblance to her sister Bellatrix became much less pronounced: her hair was a light, soft brown and her eyes were wider and kinder. Nevertheless, she looked a little haughty after Harry’s exclamation.”_ – I still wonder how it is possible that three sisters can look so different. Apparently they do resemble each other; their faces look similar (though it is never mentioned that Narcissa looks like any of her sister), but they all have a different hair colour: black (Bellatrix), brown (Andromeda) and blonde (Narcissa). Do they colour their hair? Have different fathers? (Or at least Narcissa does?) I mean symbolically it is to demonstrate how different those three women are. From the way Harry describes her Andromeda appears to be the warmest, kindest of all three. Bellatrix is a villain through and through; her inner darkness is reflected in her outer darkness. Though fair hair is very often associated with goodness Narcissa’s physique let her appear cold and arrogant. However in the end she is somewhere in the middle between her sisters: not as fanatic as Bellatrix (though she shares many of her beliefs) and above all committed to her family, just like Andromeda.


  * _“She and Ted exchanged looks. A mixture of fear and guilt gripped Harry at the sight of their expressions; if any of the others had died, it was his fault, all his fault. He had consented to the plan, given them his hair …” –_ If you take a shot every time Harry feels guilty in this book alone you… probably die due alcohol poisoning before you finish this book.


  * _“‘She … she got hit,’ said Harry. The realisation crashed over him: he felt ashamed of himself as the tears stung his eyes. The owl had been his companion, his one great link with the magical world whenever he had been forced to return to the Dursleys.”_ – I don’t know if Harry feels ashamed for showing emotions in general or particular because he mourns the loss of his pet. Which is always a complicated feeling, because we often don’t allow ourselves to show or feel the same kind of mourning we would feel for a person, because it is ‘just’ a pet. But they are our silent companions, they are there for us, and at the same moment we feel responsible for them. It is a different kind of grief, and there should be no shame to express that.


  * _“He could hear the self-justifying note in his voice, the plea for her to understand why he did not know what had happened to her sons, but – ‘Thank goodness you’re all right,’ she said, pulling him into a hug he did not feel he deserved.”_ – When will you ever accept that you are like a son to the Weasleys as well, Harry?


  * _“She [Mrs Weasley] could have summoned it by magic, but as she hurried back towards the crooked house Harry knew that she wanted to hide her face.”_ – In a later chapter we get a similar scene with Ginny, who turns around to hide her tears. Trying to hide your emotions is apparently not just a Harry thing, but a Weasley thing as well. Of course as Mrs Weasley is an adult/mother she not to fall apart in front of her children as well.


  * _“‘Yes, Harry,’ said Lupin with painful restraint, ‘and a great number of Death Eaters witnessed that happening! Forgive me, but it was a very unusual move then, under imminent threat of death. Repeating it tonight in front of Death Eaters who either witnessed or heard about the first occasion was close to suicidal!’ ‘So you think I should have killed Stan Shunpike?’ said Harry angrily. ‘Of course not,’ said Lupin, ‘but the Death Eaters – frankly, most people! – would have expected you to attack back! Expelliarmus is a useful spell, Harry, but the Death Eaters seem to think it is your signature move, and I urge you not to let it become so!’”_ – Too late, ‘Expelliarmus’ will definitely become Harry’s signature move. Like I wouldn’t be surprised if kids later only know it as the Potter spell, the one he used to defeat Voldemort. And obviously the first time he used it against Voldemort, at the graveyard, was because he did not know any other duelling spell. It had simply been the only spell that had come to his mind at that moment, without any tactic behind it, besides that he didn’t want to die without fighting. Now however Harry uses it because he shows mercy. He knows that Stan is under the Imperius Curse and does not want to harm him. He had no problem however stunning the other Death Eaters, which of course would result in them dying as they would fall of their brooms. But Harry can’t kill/harm an innocent, even if it put him in danger. Though I doubt that he had connected using ‘Expellarmus’ was the one thing that gave him away. But yeah, Harry’s signature spell will be the one showing mercy, the one that causes no harm, that simply disarms. And ironically he got it taught by Snape.


  * _“‘I think so, although there’s no chance of replacing his ear, not when it’s been cursed off –’”_ – So apparently whenever Dark Magic is involved there is no chance for a cure. Werewolf bites can’t be healed for example, and even though Fenrir Greyback was not transformed when he bit Bill, Bill’s wounds were still cursed and there was no way to heal his scars. George’s ear had been cut off by the Sectumsempra Curse. Although Snape was able to heal Draco’s wounds, it is impossible to replace George’s Ear. Dark Magic, as it seems, leaves its own trace.


  * _“‘He lost his hood during the chase. Sectumsempra was always a speciality of Snape’s. I wish I could say I’d paid him back in kind, but it was all I could do to keep George on the broom after he was injured, he was losing so much blood.’”_ – Last year Harry did ask Lupin about the Half-Blood-Prince, if he had known anyone by that name, or someone who had used ‘Levicorpus’, though it turns out the spell was quite popular. Turns out what actually had revealed the identity of the Prince was ‘Sectumsempra’. If Harry had shown Lupin the Potions book he might have recognized the spell. And though I’m sure Lupin did hear about Harry’s duel with Draco, he had not heard about the details, how exactly Draco got injured or otherwise he would have recognized the curse as well and had asked Harry about it.


  * _“‘Pathetic,’ he told George. ‘Pathetic! With the whole wide world of ear-related humour before you, you go for holey?’”_ – Look, he just lost a lot of blood, considering the circumstances this is pretty good.


  * _“‘Ron was great,’ said Tonks warmly, relinquishing her hold on Lupin. ‘Wonderful. Stunned one of the Death Eaters, straight to the head, and when you’re aiming at a moving target from a flying broom –’ ‘You did?’ said Hermione, gazing up at Ron with her arms still around his neck. ‘Always the tone of surprise,’ he said a little grumpily, breaking free.”_ – I don’t think Hermione was questioning Ron’s abilities as a wizard but she knows how he can get when put under pressure. But this is different than a Quidditch game; when it comes to life and death Ron has always surpassed himself. But I think Hermione also accidently addressed one of Ron’s insecurities: that he might not be good enough for her, not talented enough. Hermione later returns that little “Always the tone of surprise” when Ron compliments her appearance at the wedding. That in return is what Hermione is insecure about: that she might not be pretty enough, not girlish enough, that Ron only thought of her as the last option for the Yule Ball because to him she did not register as a girl.


  * _“‘Bellatrix,’ said Tonks. ‘She wants me quite as much as she wants Harry, Remus, she tried very hard to kill me. I just wish I’d got her, I owe Bellatrix. […]’”_ – Bellatrix is trying to kill what she believes is the stain in her family tree (just as Sirius was), believing that somehow she can redeem herself through it to Voldemort.


  * _“Mrs Weasley ran forwards, but the hug Bill bestowed upon her was perfunctory. Looking directly at his father, he said, ‘Mad-Eye’s dead.’ Nobody spoke, nobody moved. Harry felt as though something inside him was falling, falling through the earth, leaving him forever.”_ – I don’t think Harry and Moody had been particular close; most of their interactions had happened in Harry’s fourth year when Moody of course had been impersonated by Barty Crouch Jun. But Moody had been one of the most skilled Aurors; just as with Dumbledore it seems impossible that someone like him could die. And of course this is Harry’s worst fear coming true: that someone died for him, that if it wasn’t for him Moody would be still alive.


  * _“‘I know what you’re thinking,’ said Bill, ‘and I wondered that too, on the way back here, because they seemed to be expecting us, didn’t they? But Mundungus can’t have betrayed us. They didn’t know there would be seven Harrys, that confused them the moment we appeared, and in case you’ve forgotten, it was Mundungus who suggested that little bit of skullduggery. Why wouldn’t he have told them the essential point? I think Dung panicked, it’s as simple as that. He didn’t want to come in the first place, but Mad-Eye made him, and You-Know-Who went straight for them: it was enough to make anyone panic.’”_ – Interesting enough, as we later learn, it was Snape who confuded Mundugus, making it appear as he was the one coming up with the plan. Which ironically made it impossible that he could have been the one who betrayed them. (In truth it was Dumbledore who had told Snape about the plan) Bill is right, Mundugus simply panicked. Naturally we expect everyone in the Order to be brave and selfless and willing to risk their lives, but I don’t think you can judge anyone for wanting to save their life (Mundugus perhaps believing Moody is capable enough to fight off Voldemort).


  * _“Harry glanced at Hagrid, who had just risked his own life to save Harry’s – Hagrid, whom he loved, whom he trusted, who had once been tricked into giving Voldemort crucial information in exchange for a dragon’s egg … ‘No,’ Harry said aloud, and they all looked at him, surprised: the Firewhisky seemed to have amplified his voice. ‘I mean … if somebody made a mistake,’ Harry went on, ‘and let something slip, I know they didn’t mean to do it. It’s not their fault,’ he repeated, again a little louder than he would usually have spoken. ‘We’ve got to trust each other. I trust all of you, I don’t think anyone in this room would ever sell me to Voldemort.’”_ – Obviously nobody betrayed them, at least not in the way they thought. Dumbledore told Snape about the plan, so Snape would remain Voldemort’s favourite, his most trusted follower. Calculated risks. But still it drives a wedge between the members of the Order, they start to mistrust each other. Ironically it had been Moody who never trusted anyone, perhaps seeing too much in his life, knowing that anyone could become a traitor under the right circumstances. And Dumbledore, as it seems, had been too trusting. He trusted Snape and it resulted in his death. Harry, just as Dumbledore, is willing to trust as well, to see the good in everyone. There is a small line between being cautious and careless, but if you never trust anyone (the way Voldemort does) you have already lost.


  * _“Dumbledore would have believed him, he knew it. Dumbledore would have known how and why Harry’s wand had acted independently, because Dumbledore always had the answers; he had known about wands, had explained to Harry the strange connection that existed between his wand and Voldemort’s … but Dumbledore, like Mad-Eye, like Sirius, like his parents, like his poor owl, all were gone where Harry could never talk to them again. He felt a burning in his throat that had nothing to do with Firewhisky …”_ – Everyone Harry has lost (with the exception of Hedwig perhaps) were authorities, people Harry looked up to, people he would ask for advice. He is on his own now, he has to make his own choices, and there is nothing more terrifying about growing up than this.


  * _“‘Harry, he’s taking over the Ministry and the newspapers and half the wizarding world! Don’t let him inside your head too!’”_ – Big Brother is watching you. Constant surveillance. But the last resort are our own thoughts. The mind is free. And that is the real horror, that Voldemort infiltrates everything, even Harry’s mind. There is no escaping.




	6. Chapter 6: The Ghoul in Pyjamas

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 6: The Ghoul in Pyjamas**

  * _“[…] Dad and Lupin’ve both asked as well, but when we said Dumbledore told you not to tell anyone except us, they dropped it. Not Mum, though. She’s determined.”_ – Interesting that both Lupin and Mr Weasley seem to trust Dumbledore blindly, thinking he knows what is best, whereas Mrs Weasley seems to think that whatever it is Dumbledore tasked Harry, Ron and Hermione with might be a bit too much for three teenagers, that perhaps it would be better if adults to their work. You know, like a responsible adult would act.


  * _“‘May I ask why you are abandoning your education?’ said Mrs Weasley.”_ – If Mrs Weasley would have known what would become of Hogwarts she wouldn’t have send any of her children there either. Perhaps it is a bit naïve of her to think Hogwarts will stay remain the safe haven it once was, with Dumbledore gone now and the Death Eaters infiltrating every public institution. Returning to Hogwarts seems like the obvious choice for Harry; where else should he go or should he do? With spies and people being under the Imperius Curse everywhere returning to Hogwarts would have been Harry’s death sentence, something Mrs Weasley does not seem to consider.


  * _“‘Well, frankly, I think Arthur and I have a right to know, and I’m sure Mr and Mrs Granger would agree!’ said Mrs Weasley. Harry had been afraid of the ‘concerned parent’ attack. He forced himself to look directly into her eyes, noticing as he did so that they were precisely the same shade of brown as Ginny’s. This did not help.”_ – I do not think Mr and Mrs Granger are that concerned. By now of course they no longer know they have a daughter, but even before the time they did spent with Hermione was very limited. In the last years she spent most of her holidays at Hogwarts or with Harry and the Weasleys. And I doubt Hermione told her parents too much about the ongoing war in the Wizarding World or Harry’s role in it, fearing they might not let her return to Hogwarts.


  * _“‘I don’t see that you have to go, either!’ she snapped, dropping all pretence now. ‘You’re barely of age, any of you! It’s utter nonsense, if Dumbledore needed work doing, he had the whole Order at his command! Harry, you must have misunderstood him. Probably he was telling you something he wanted done, and you took it to mean that he wanted you –’ ‘I didn’t misunderstand,’ said Harry flatly. ‘It’s got to be me.’”_ – I can understand the way Mrs Weasley thinks, because it does seem strange that Dumbledore would give Harry (and Ron and Hermione) such an important task, one they are not allowed to talk to outsiders as well, and not members of the Order. For one thing of course, the less people involved the less likely it is Voldemort will get to know about it (perhaps even Dumbledore was not sure if there wasn’t a spy in the Order). But knowing what we know there is another significant reason why it had to be Harry to destroy the Horcruxes. Dumbledore needed him in a position where a) Harry had to believe he alone has to defeat Voldemort and where b) he by then would have understand enough about Horcruxes to realize he is a Horcrux as well. It has to be Harry’s job, because Harry is the final puzzle piece, the final Horcrux, the one who has to sacrifice himself. Which neither Mrs Weasley nor Harry could know by now, so Dumbledore’s plan still seems a bit wonky.


  * _“‘And then what does she think’s going to happen?’ Harry muttered. ‘Someone else might kill off Voldemort while she’s holding us here making vol-au-vents?’ He had spoken without thinking, and saw Ginny’s face whiten. ‘So it’s true?’ she said. ‘That’s what you’re trying to do?’”_ – Ginny of course is not stupid or naïve. She knows enough to figure out what Harry, Ron and Hermione plan. Still, this is the first time she gets her suspicion confirmed. She is still 16 and the boy she loves (along with her brother and one of her best friends) is off on a deadly mission. She knows that nothing she says or does will get Harry to give up his plan. And yet it must be incredible hard to be in love with someone always on the brink of death, spending months at Hogwarts without knowing where he is or what he is doing or if he is safe.


  * _“‘The latter, I think. Scrimgeour doesn’t want to admit that You-Know-Who is as powerful as he is, nor that Azkaban’s seen a mass breakout.’ ‘Yeah, why tell the public the truth?’ said Harry, clenching his knife so tightly that the faint scars on the back of his right hand stood out, white against his skin: I must not tell lies.”_ – Withholding the truth ironically plays in Voldemort’s hands. If the public is not aware of the danger they are in it is much easier to get control over the Wizarding World. Perhaps Scrimgeour wants to avoid a mass panic, perhaps he wants the public to believe the Ministry is doing a better job than they actually do. Either way, he is belittling the public. They have a right to know the truth, ugly or not, and to make their own choices on behalf of that.


  * _“‘Of course, Ron, but people are terrified,’ Mr Weasley replied, ‘terrified that they will be next to disappear, their children the next to be attacked! There are nasty rumours going round; I, for one, don’t believe the Muggle Studies professor at Hogwarts resigned. She hasn’t been seen for weeks now.[…]”_ – Ok, I’m still trying to figure out the timeline here. The article that Charity Burbage resigned was printed shortly after Dumbledore’s death, but she was killed roughly 4 weeks later. Voldemort talks about an article Charity has written, making it appear she only wrote that recently. Now though it looks like it has been a while she wrote that article, that her resignation had been a cover for her abduction, and Voldemort kept her a prisoner for a month before killing her.


  * _“She threw Numerology and Grammatica on to one pile and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts on to the other.”_ – I wonder which book she kept on their journey, though I would think it would be rather “Numerology and Grammatica” than the Dark Arts book. They do already know everything about the Dark Arts, whereas the other book seems like something that would be useful for a translation.


  * “‘ _We were just talking about Mad-Eye,’ Ron told Harry. ‘I reckon he might have survived.’_ ” – Over the course of this book Harry will be wondering if Dumbledore might still be alive. Of course, given how incredible gifted Dumbledore was, it does not seem completely unlikely he might have survived. And of course there are ways how in the Wizarding World people can still communicate with the dead: ghosts, paintings, the Stone of Resurrection etc. Still, none of the characters that died actually comes back, and I’m glad Rowling did not use this trick. I think it always cheapens a character death if said character comes back, which happens quite lot in genre fiction. We do not have this way out in real life; what is dead stays dead and the hardest thing in life is to accept this, to live with that loss and eventually move on.


  * _“‘Don’t!’ squealed Hermione. Startled, Harry looked over just in time to see her burst into tears over her copy of Spellman’s Syllabary. ‘Oh, no,’ said Harry, struggling to get up from the old camp bed. ‘Hermione, I wasn’t trying to upset –’ But with a great creaking of rusty bedsprings Ron bounded off the bed and got there first.”_ – Interesting that however uncomfortable Harry is whenever someone cries in front of him, it is not like this with Hermione. Hermione had always been the most open with her emotions and yet Harry never thought of her to be annoying. Of course he has never been romantically interested in her, so that might be the difference to Cho (or Ginny in that regard, because one of the things Harry likes about her is that she hardly cries).


  * _“‘No, Harry, you listen,’ said Hermione. ‘We’re coming with you. That was decided months ago – years, really.’”_ – I mean you can’t be friends with Harry without stumbling in life-threating situations once or twice a year, and Ron and Hermione are neither stupid nor naïve. They know who Harry is, they are aware about the constant danger he is in, and that being close to him means they are in danger as well. And Ron and Hermione probably had ‘the talk’ months ago, perhaps after Harry told them about the Horcruxes and shit got real. I think when Hermione says it was decided years ago actually that they would stay at his side it was something that was decided rather subconscious. Whenever Harry was in danger Ron and Hermione were with him, without a second thought. But they also really thought through what lies ahead of them. The Wizarding World is at war and everyone has to choose a side; theirs is right next to Harry.


  * _“‘Assuming I survive our hunt for the Horcruxes, I’ll find Mum and Dad and lift the enchantment. If I don’t – well, I think I’ve cast a good enough charm to keep them safe and happy. Wendell and Monica Wilkins don’t know that they’ve got a daughter, you see.’”_ – This moment always breaks my heart. Of course Hermione erases the memory of her parents for their own safety – this way she hopes they can’t be interrogated (though we know there are ways to break a memory charm). But also because she wants to spare them the pain of losing their daughter. Which is all fine and well, but I think they have a right to know they have a daughter, have a right to know what she is doing and why, and they would also have a right to mourn her in the worst case. Just as Hermione has a right to be remembered by her own parents. But the fact that she decided to erase her parent’s memory of her makes me even more convinced she did not tell her parents about the war going on in the Wizarding World or the danger she is in. She decided what is best for them, roles reversed.


  * _“‘And your mum and dad are in on this plan?’ asked Harry. ‘Dad is. He helped Fred and George transform the ghoul. Mum … well, you’ve seen what she’s like. She won’t accept we’re going ’til we’ve gone.’”_ – Soooooooooooooo… As we know Mr Weasley had asked Ron about his plan to leave Hogwarts as well, Ron did not tell him what he, Harry and Hermione are up to because of reasons, and he simply accepts that (on behalf that they are following Dumbledore’s orders) and on top of that he also helps his son to come up with a plan to create an alibi for him. Again, how much does he trusts Dumbledore to simply accept that his son and his two best friends, all barely off age, go on a possibly deadly mission? Maybe he has accepted that there is nothing that can’t stop Ron, and that Harry will be part of this war either way, and so he does whatever he can to support them in whatever way.


  * _“There was silence in the room, broken only by gentle thuds, as Hermione continued to throw books on to one pile or the other. Ron sat watching her, and Harry looked from one to the other, unable to say anything. The measures they had taken to protect their families made him realise, more than anything else could have done, that they really were going to come with him and that they knew exactly how dangerous that would be. He wanted to tell them what that meant to him, but he simply could not find words important enough.”_ – Friendship level 11/10. We should accept that none of us will ever find friends that dedicated to us.


  * _“‘Well … it was easy,’ said Hermione in a small voice. ‘I just did a Summoning Charm. You know – accio. And – they zoomed out of Dumbledore’s study window right into the girls’ dormitory.’”_ – That was way too easy, so I like to believe Dumbledore purposely did not put any kind of protective charms on those books, hoping that one of them would try to get them (and by that I mean Hermione, because who else would have thought of that?). And this again was some calculated risk, because those books are dangerous: one of them gives an explicit instruction how to make a Horcrux. Obviously, the amount of people who even know about Horcruxes and that Voldemort created several to become immortal is very limited, so it would not have been very likely anyone else came looking for them. But still someone could have accidently discovered them, though I doubt McGonagall is interested in creating a Horcrux. I think Dumbledore just knew Hermione very well, knew that she would try to learn as much about Horcruxes as possible and would eventually find these books.


  * _“‘Isn’t there any way of putting yourself back together?’ Ron asked. ‘Yes,’ said Hermione, with a hollow smile, ‘but it would be excruciatingly painful.’ ‘Why? How do you do it?’ asked Harry. ‘Remorse,’ said Hermione. ‘You’ve got to really feel what you’ve done. There’s a footnote. Apparently the pain of it can destroy you. I can’t see Voldemort attempting it, somehow, can you?’”_ – And yet, during their final confrontation Harry offers Voldemort the chance for remorse, the chance to put himself together again, to die whole. Harry saw at King’s Cross what was left of Voldemort. I wonder though if Voldemort could have put himself together again? When Harry and the others destroyed a Horcrux did they simply destroy the container or that piece of soul as well? Did Voldemort even had the chance to become whole again?


  * _“That’s a problem we’re going to have to solve, though, because ripping, smashing or crushing a Horcrux won’t do the trick. You’ve got to put it beyond magical repair.”_ – We know that Dark Magic can cause wounds that can’t be healed. Bill’s werewolf bites could not be healed because those wounds are cursed, and George’s ear could not be replaced because it got cut off by Dark Magic as well. The diary and the cup get destroyed by Basilisk Venom, the diadem by cursed fire and the piece of Voldemort’s soul in Harry by the Killing Curse.


  * _“‘Because a Horcrux is the complete opposite of a human being.’ […][M]y point is that whatever happens to your body, your soul will survive, untouched,’ said Hermione. ‘But it’s the other way round with a Horcrux. The fragment of soul inside it depends on its container, its enchanted body, for survival. It can’t exist without it.’”_ – Soooo… that means destroying the container destroys the soul as well, therefore even if he had wanted Voldemort had no chance to put himself together again. But the idea of the human soul we are presented here with is a very Christian idea. The idea that the (human) soul is indestructible and (implied) immortal. Body and Soul are different entities, but in a Horcrux they become one. You destroy you destroy the other. And it shows again how little Voldemort understood what it means to be human, what it means to be alive, and the value of the human life.


  * _“‘While the magical container is still intact, the bit of soul inside it can flit in and out of someone if they get too close to the object. I don’t mean holding it for too long, it’s nothing to do with touching it,’ she added, before Ron could speak. ‘I mean close emotionally. Ginny poured her heart out into that diary, she made herself incredibly vulnerable. You’re in trouble if you get too fond of or dependent on the Horcrux.’”_ – New Theory: the One Ring was actually a Horcrux. Later on, while Harry, Hermione and Ron all wear the locket we see the effect of that and that parallel of Frodo (and Gollum before him) getting influenced by the Ring is pretty obvious.


  * _“‘I wonder how Dumbledore destroyed the ring?’ said Harry. ‘Why didn’t I ask him? I never really …’ His voice tailed away: he was thinking of all the things he should have asked Dumbledore, and of how, since the Headmaster had died, it seemed to Harry that he had wasted so many opportunities, when Dumbledore had been alive, to find out more … to find out everything …”_ – I mean obviously Harry had at the time no idea it would be up to him to hunt down and destroy the Horcruxes. And of course he made the mistake everyone makes: he thought he had more time.


  * _“Monsieur Delacour was nowhere near as attractive as his wife; he was a head shorter and extremely plump, with a little, pointed, black beard. However, he looked good-natured. Bouncing towards Mrs Weasley on high-heeled boots, he kissed her twice on each cheek, leaving her flustered.”_ – After Bill got injured by Fenrir Greyback and would be scarred for life Fleur let everyone know that obviously she did not marry Bill because of his good looks. And obviously her mother chose her father as a husband for other reasons as well. I think if you got Veela blood in your veins and can practically have every man other things than attractiveness become naturally more important. Fleur, just as a mother I assume, wants a man who marries her for herself, not her looks, and that is the same kind of love she has to offer.


  * _“She looked at him, a long, searching look, then smiled a little sadly, straightened up and walked away. Harry watched as she waved her wand near the washing line, and the damp clothes rose into the air to hang themselves up, and suddenly he felt a great wave of remorse for the inconvenience and the pain he was giving her.”_ – No matter how overcaring Mrs Weasley appears she is still the closest thing to a mother Harry ever had and he just knows he will break her heart by leaving.




	7. Chapter 7: The Will of Albus Dumbledore

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 7: The Will of Albus Dumbledore**

  * _“Revelling in the removal of his Trace, Harry sent Ron’s possessions flying around the room, causing Pigwidgeon to wake up and flutter excitedly around his cage. Harry also tried tying the laces of his trainers by magic (the resultant knot took several minutes to untie by hand) and, purely for the pleasure of it, turned the orange robes on Ron’s Chudley Cannons posters bright blue.”_ – I mean the first thing I did when I was off age was getting pierced, but we all celebrate in different ways.


  * _“‘This isn’t your average book,’ said Ron. ‘It’s pure gold: Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches. Explains everything you need to know about girls. If only I’d had this last year, I’d have known exactly how to get rid of Lavender and I would’ve known how to get going with … well, Fred and George gave me a copy, and I’ve learned a lot. You’d be surprised, it’s not all about wandwork, either.’”_ – This sounds like a horrible book written by some Pick-Up-Artists and all it does is teaching Ron some basic decency, things he should have figured out without some book suggesting it to him. We see him more attentive towards Hermione, putting her needs first, complementing her etc. And it is not just that Ron should know these things without a book, but also it should be the kind of behaviour Hermione should expect of any of friends, not just those who secretly fancy her. And that is another odd thing, how Ron even in front of Harry can’t say Hermione’s name, can’t admit he likes her, despite the fact that Harry obliviously knows what is going on.


  * _“‘It’s traditional to give a wizard a watch when he comes of age,’ said Mrs Weasley, watching him anxiously from beside the cooker. ‘I’m afraid that one isn’t new like Ron’s, it was actually my brother Fabian’s and he wasn’t terribly careful with his possessions, it’s a bit dented on the back, but –’ The rest of her speech was lost; Harry had got up and hugged her. He tried to put a lot of unsaid things into the hug and perhaps she understood them, because she patted his cheek clumsily when he released her, then waved her wand in a slightly random way, causing half a pack of bacon to flop out of the frying pan on to the floor.”_ – I think [this post ](https://accio-shitpost.tumblr.com/post/154692178867/i-just-cant-get-over-how-perfect-the-weasley)sums it up perfectly: Harry, who has always been like another son to Mrs Weasley, is given her brother’s Fabian’s watch. Fabian, who was in the Order and killed by Death Eaters during the First Wizarding War. The value of this item is strictly emotional, it is a family heirloom, and from all her children Mrs Weasley passes it down to Harry. And of course the other Weasley children got something new, something that is their own and did not belong to an older brother before. But Harry never had a family and we know how much he appreciates the few things his parents left him behind. It is Mrs Weasleys way to show him he will always be a part of her family, and Harry’s hug, the unsaid words, are his way to thank her for that.


  * _“He chanced a glance at her. She was not tearful; that was one of the many wonderful things about Ginny, she was rarely weepy. He had sometimes thought that having six brothers must have toughened her up.”_ \- *rollseyesveryhard* There is nothing wrong about crying or showing your emotions. Though Harry is perhaps right: growing up with 6 older brothers Ginny would have learn to toughen up real quick, because they surely teased her every time she did cry. And maybe she had also overheard Harry complaining about Cho and her constant crying and knows how super uncomfortable Harry is whenever someone cries in front of him. And look nobody likes that and I myself do not like to cry in front of others as well, I get it. But you should not feel shameful about your tears or feel like you have to hold them back. Let people cry, Harry.


  * _“‘There’s the silver lining I’ve been looking for,’ she whispered, and then she was kissing him as she had never kissed him before, and Harry was kissing her back, and it was blissful oblivion, better than Firewhisky; she was the only real thing in the world, Ginny, the feel of her, one hand at her back and one in her long, sweet-smelling hair – The door banged open behind them and they jumped apart. ‘Oh,’ said Ron pointedly. ‘Sorry.’”_ – I mean obviously Harry broke things off with Ginny for her own safety, not because he longer has any feelings towards her, so Ron (as usual) acts a bit too overprotective and like a jerk following this. I wonder though what Ginny’s intention here was, had she not been interrupted by Ron. She wanted to give Harry something he would remember her by, but was that only this kiss or perhaps a bit more? I mean chances are she might never see him again. And I don’t know if that would have made things even worse for both of them.


  * _“He looked at Ginny, wanting to say something, though he hardly knew what, but she had turned her back on him. He thought that she might have succumbed, for once, to tears. He could not do anything to comfort her in front of Ron.”_ – Just like her mother Ginny turns away, does not want anyone to witness her weakness. Again, not very healthy.


  * _“‘She’s not an idiot, she knows it can’t happen, she’s not expecting us to – to end up married, or –’ As he said it, a vivid picture formed in Harry’s mind of Ginny in a white dress, marrying a tall, faceless and unpleasant stranger. In one spiralling moment it seemed to hit him: her future was free and unencumbered, whereas his … he could see nothing but Voldemort ahead.”_ – Well, they are still at war, so Ginny’s future isn’t exactly free, but obviously it contains more choices than Harry’s. I mean he is just 17, but he can’t imagine a future beyond that point, getting married himself, becoming a father. He can’t think about it, can’t hope for it, because it would destroy him. All roads lead to Voldemort and it is a destination he doesn’t know he will survive.


  * _“When the cake had finally landed in the middle of the table, Harry said, ‘That looks amazing, Mrs Weasley.’ ‘Oh, it’s nothing, dear,’ she said fondly. Over her shoulder, Ron gave Harry the thumbs up and mouthed, Good one.”_ – Yeah Ron, though unlike you Harry does not need a book telling him it is nice to compliment people for their efforts.


  * _“Although Lupin smiled as he shook Harry’s hand, Harry thought he looked rather unhappy. It was all very odd; Tonks, beside him, looked simply radiant.”_ – Does that mean she is already pregnant by now? And is that the reason Lupin looks so unhappy?


  * _“‘Sorry to intrude,’ said Scrimgeour, as he limped to a halt before the table. ‘Especially as I can see that I am gatecrashing a party.’”_ – It’s funny that the only times we see Scrimgeour in the books (apart from his short conversation with the Muggle Prime Minister) is when he is crashing a Weasley family gathering. Spoilsport.


  * _“‘I have some questions for the three of you, and I think it will be best if we do it individually. If you two,’ he pointed at Harry and Hermione, ‘can wait upstairs, I will start with Ronald.’ ‘We’re not going anywhere,’ said Harry, while Hermione nodded vigorously. ‘You can speak to us together, or not at all.’”_ – Once again Scrimgeour’s past as Auror is evident; he treats the situation as if this is an interrogation, trying to separate Ron, Harry and Hermione and starting with who he assumes is the weakest link: Ron. Of course Scrimgeour’s assumpetion is right and there is more to the things Dumbledore left each of them behind than appears on the surface. However Harry and Hermione immediately see through Scrimgeour and know that the best to not accidently tell him too much is by staying together.


  * _“‘Are you planning to follow a career in Magical Law, Miss Granger?’ asked Scrimgeour. ‘No I’m not,’ retorted Hermione. ‘I’m hoping to do some good in the world!’”_ – Ok, I just love that quote. Though it is an interesting question: if you really want to change the system, do you have to be part of it? We know from Pottermore canon that Hermione indeed ends up working in the Ministry, so she does reform the system from within. And obviously neither the Ministry nor the Magical Law Enforcement are bad in itself; it’s the people working there, abusing their power. Political institutions are neither good or bad, they are simply instruments, and it depends on who plays them what sound they make.


  * _“Scrimgeour now pulled out of the bag a small book that looked as ancient as the copy of Secrets of the Darkest Art upstairs. Its binding was stained and peeling in places. Hermione took it from Scrimgeour without a word. She held the book in her lap and gazed at it. Harry saw that the title was in runes; he had never learned to read them. As he looked, a tear splashed on to the embossed symbols. ‘Why do you think Dumbledore left you that book, Miss Granger?’ asked Scrimgeour. ‘He … he knew I liked books,’ said Hermione in a thick voice, mopping her eyes with her sleeve.”_ \- We do know the deeper meaning of each of those heirlooms. The Deluminator will help Ron finding his way back to Harry and Hermione, the book will give Hermione clues about the Deathly Hallows and the Snitch contains the Resurrection Stone. However both Ron and Hermione already see value in their objects before those reveals. The Deluminator is an unique object, something Dumbledore designed himself, incredible valuable, passed down to Ron, who never owned anything of value. The book of course is valuable as well; it is very old. However it also has a deeply personal value to Hermione; she indeed likes books. They are her safe haven, the places that hold all the answers. When in doubt go to the library. Also, among the three Hermione is the only one who can read this book, as it is written in runes. Dumbledore could have passed down Hermione any copy of “Beedle the Bard”, but he chose the one only Hermione would be able to read.


  * _“‘I notice that your birthday cake is in the shape of a Snitch,’ Scrimgeour said to Harry. ‘Why is that?’ Hermione laughed derisively. ‘Oh, it can’t be a reference to the fact Harry’s a great Seeker, that’s way too obvious,’ she said. ‘There must be a secret message from Dumbledore hidden in the icing!’”_ – Scrimgeour is not yet on a Moody level of paranoia, but he is pretty close. Must be the job. (And can you blame them, living in a world where nothing ever is what it seems, where we learned not to trust anything or anyone?)


  * _“‘Remembered you’re not at school, have you?’ said Scrimgeour, breathing hard into Harry’s face. ‘Remembered that I am not Dumbledore, who forgave your insolence and insubordination? You may wear that scar like a crown, Potter, but it is not up to a seventeen-year-old boy to tell me how to do my job! It’s time you learned some respect!’ ‘It’s time you earned it,’ said Harry.”_ – If you have to demand respect you don’t earn it. People who deserve respect never ask for it. It’s given to them freely.


  * _“‘D’you think he knew the Ministry would confiscate his will and examine everything he’d left us?’ asked Harry. ‘Definitely,’ said Hermione. ‘He couldn’t tell us in the will why he was leaving us these things, but that still doesn’t explain …’ ‘… why he couldn’t have given us a hint when he was alive?’ asked Ron.”_ – Not just a hint, he could have given you those objects while he still was alive. But at least in the case for Ron and Harry, what those objects do is hard to explain. Both the Deluminator and the Snitch need the right timing, the right emotional state. Dumbledore could not have known for sure that Ron would leave, but he left him something behind that would make sure he would always find his way back. And Dumbledore could also not know for sure if Harry would realize he is the final Horcrux, if he would sacrifice himself, if there would be a time when he needed the solace of those he had lost. The only thing Dumbledore probably did know for sure was that Hermione would figure out the book and the symbol of the Deathly Hallows. Hermione is the most logical of the three, the one who would always base her plans on cold facts instead of emotions. Though it is a bit odd nobody at Ministry would have identified the symbol of the Deathly Hallows in Dumbledore’s copy of “Beedle the Bard”.


  * _“Harry’s heart was beating rather fast. He was sure that Scrimgeour was right. How could he avoid taking the Snitch with his bare hand in front of the Minister? [… ] ‘When Scrimgeour made you take it, Harry, I was so sure that something was going to happen!’ ‘Yeah, well,’ said Harry, his pulse quickening as he raised the Snitch in his fingers. ‘I wasn’t going to try too hard in front of Scrimgeour, was I?’”_ – There are several pages between those two scenes, but the latter one made it look like Harry had already known that he needed to touch the Snitch with his mouth in order to open him again… which he did not know at the time. Clearly he did remember that at some point, but now he acts like it was all just some clever plan to fool Scrimgeour.


  * _“‘And as for this book,’ said Hermione, ‘The Tales of Beedle the Bard … I’ve never even heard of them!’”_ – It seems that with all the books Hermione has read she kind of never read any Wizard fiction books. Or legends. Or fairy tells. Which are an important part of every culture, so it really seems odd Hermione has never read them or never even heard of them.




	8. Chapter 8: The Wedding

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 8: The Wedding**

  * _“‘When I get married,’ said Fred, tugging at the collar of his own robes, ‘I won’t be bothering with any of this nonsense. You can all wear what you like, and I’ll put a full Body-Bind Curse on Mum until it’s all over.’”_ – You know, this is on the same level as having Amos Diggory telling Cedric that one day he will tell his children about beating Harry Potter at Quidditch, knowing very well this will never happen, just as Fred is never going to get married. RUDE.


  * _“George was left to deal with the middle-aged witches and Ron took charge of Mr Weasley’s old Ministry colleague, Perkins, while a rather deaf old couple fell to Harry’s lot.”_ – Who is actually invited to this wedding and why? I get all the relatives and some people that we assume are friends of Bill and Fleur (like Krum), but why is Perkins there? Why is Hagrid invited? Or the Lovegoods? Like we know all those characters but they have seemingly no connection to Bill and Fleur. It seems that about everyone they ever met (or some of their family knows) is invited. Is this common? Are Wizarding Weddings always so crowded?


  * _“He led a party of warlocks into the marquee as Luna rushed up. ‘Hello, Harry!’ she said. ‘Er – my name’s Barny,’ said Harry, flummoxed. ‘Oh, have you changed that too?’ she asked brightly. ‘How did you know –?’ ‘Oh, just your expression,’ she said.”_ – I love how everyone is trying to keep Harry safe, including disguising him, and Luna… can just tell. She would have made a great Auror.


  * _“‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ said a slightly sing-song voice, and with a slight shock Harry saw the same small, tufty-haired wizard who had presided at Dumbledore’s funeral, now standing in front of Bill and Fleur. ‘We are gathered here today to celebrate the union of two faithful souls …’”_ – Who is this guy that you apparently can book for both funerals and weddings? Is the Wizarding community so small you will hear the same guy speaking at every great gathering? And is this a church or a civil wedding? (Assuming that religion never played a role before – apart from wizards celebrating Christian holidays like Christmas – I would say this is a civil wedding) Also I wish we would have seen more from the actual wedding, from the specific customs and traditions wizards surely have.


  * _“‘Yes, my tiara sets off the whole thing nicely,’ said Auntie Muriel in a rather carrying whisper. ‘But I must say, Ginevra’s dress is far too low-cut.’ Ginny glanced round, grinning, winked at Harry, then quickly faced the front again.”_ – I hope nobody noticed Ginny flirting with what appears to be another Weasley cousin, cause that might be a bit… awkward. There is also this sense that Ginny owns her sexuality. She wears a low-cut dress, the previous day it was her who initiated the kiss with Harry etc. She knows what she wants and how to get it and feels very confident in her body.


  * _“‘I like this song,’ said Luna, swaying in time to the waltz-like tune, and a few seconds later she stood up and glided on to the dance floor, where she revolved on the spot, quite alone, eyes closed and waving her arms. ‘She’s great, isn’t she?’ said Ron admiringly. ‘Always good value.’”_ – No matter how much fun Ron makes of Luna, I do believe he genuinely likes her and would always be the first to defend her. If anything he sees her as another younger sister.


  * _“‘Ah, they are together now?’ asked Krum, momentarily distracted. ‘Er – sort of,’ said Harry.”_ – Facebook Status: it’s complicated.


  * _“‘Grindelvald killed many people, my grandfather, for instance. Of course, he vos never poverful in this country, they said he feared Dumbledore – and rightly, seeing how he vos finished. But this –’ He pointed a finger at Xenophilius. ‘This is his symbol, I recognised it at vunce: Grindelvald carved it into a vall at Durmstrang ven he vos a pupil there. Some idiots copied it on to their books and clothes, thinking to shock, make themselves impressive – until those of us who had lost family members to Grindelvald taught them better.’”_ – Symbols of course are neither good or bad and they can have several meanings. To Xenophilius Lovegood the symbol is that of the Deathly Hallows (he might not even be aware of Grindelwald’s use), to Krum the symbol represents something much sinister. Just as the swastika was a religious symbol (and still is Asia) until the Nazis abused it. Grindelwald, as Krum explained, had never been as powerful in Britain as he was in other countries, which explains why Harry (and likewise Mr. Lovegood) is unaware of the symbol and its meaning in Eastern Europe. It is people who give symbols meaning, life and history and those can change over time or simply geographically. What is harmless for one can be harmful for another.


  * _“‘Vot,’ he said, draining his goblet and getting to his feet again, ‘is the point of being an international Quidditch player if all the good-looking girls are taken?’”_ \- This is the world’s smallest violin, and it’s playing just for you, Krum.


  * _“‘Don’t believe a word of it!’ said Doge at once. ‘Not a word, Harry! Let nothing tarnish your memories of Albus Dumbledore!’ Harry looked into Doge’s earnest, pained face and felt not reassured, but frustrated. Did Doge really think it was that easy, that Harry could simply choose not to believe? Didn’t Doge understand Harry’s need to be sure, to know everything?” –_ Well to quote Dumbledore himself: “The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.” And obviously there is no such thing as an objective truth. Harry could talk to everyone that has known Dumbledore and still he would not be wiser. There would still be only one truth, Harry’s truth. And I think this is what people mean when they tell Harry he has to choose what to believe about Dumbledore. He has known Dumbledore, he is in the position to form an opinion about him. He can never know the entire truth, so this is the only thing he can do. But with the task Dumbledore has given Harry it is important for him that he can trust Dumbledore. And the more Harry learns about Dumbledore, the more he realizes he has hardly known him, the harder it gets for Harry to still trust Dumbledore, to still be Dumbledore’s man. You can’t follow someone you don’t know. And for all the idolization Harry has done in the past (with Sirius as well), I think it is healthier for him now to question Dumbledore and not to offer him blind faith.


  * _“‘Squibs were usually shipped off to Muggle schools and encouraged to integrate into the Muggle community … much kinder than trying to find them a place in the wizarding world, where they must always be second class; […]”_ – I have wondered about what usually happens to Squibs. We know that Mrs. Figg lives in a Muggle neighbourhood, and from what we know about her she does live like a Muggle. Filch however has a position at Hogwarts, and no matter how cruel he seems to be towards the students, it must be incredible hard to be surrounded by wizards and witches every day, by children who were able to produce more magic than he ever could. No wonder he started to hate them. Though the question is how did he ever get the job? And why? It would have been kinder if he had chosen a life in the Muggle World, where he would not have been an outsider. Was he forced to live in the Wizarding World despite the fact he would never be part of it? Or was he perhaps proud to get a job at Hogwarts, to still be somewhat a part of the world all his family is familiar with?


  * _“Harry did not know what to think, what to believe: he wanted the truth, and yet all Doge did was sit there and bleat feebly that Ariana had been ill. Harry could hardly believe that Dumbledore would not have intervened if such cruelty was happening inside his own house, and yet there was undoubtedly something odd about the story.”_ – If you hear something about someone that does not seem at all to be in character with the person you know, do you change your perception of said person or do you accuse others of telling lies?


  * _“‘Quite gaga these days, I’ve heard,’ said Auntie Muriel cheerfully. ‘If that is so, it is even more dishonourable for Skeeter to have taken advantage of her,’ said Doge, ‘and no reliance can be placed on anything Bathilda may have said!’ ‘Oh, there are ways of bringing back memories, and I’m sure Rita Skeeter knows them all,’ said Auntie Muriel.”_ – I’m pretty sure as well that Rita Skeeter knows how to bring memories back and has no moral compass whatsoever. Then again when have wizards ever bothered about consent?




	9. Chapter 9: A Place to Hide

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 9: A Place to Hide**

  * _“A double-decker bus rumbled by and a group of merry pub-goers ogled them as they passed; Harry and Ron were still wearing dress robes.”_ – It seems that Hermione, even though she dressed herself in something chic for the wedding, chose Muggle clothes. We do know that the Weasley children often wear Muggle clothes in their free time, despite being Purebloods. For the wedding however they all wore dress robes. I think Hermione’s choice to wear a Muggle dress was very deliberate, a visual reminder of her heritage, that she belongs to both worlds, and is not ashamed to show it.


  * _“‘Undetectable Extension Charm,’ said Hermione. ‘Tricky, but I think I’ve done it OK; anyway, I managed to fit everything we need in here.’ She gave the fragile-looking bag a little shake and it echoed like a cargo hold as a number of heavy objects rolled around inside it.”_ – Also known as the handbag every woman dreams of. Also Mary Poppins confirmed to be a witch.


  * _“‘When did you do all this?’ Harry asked, as Ron stripped off his robes. ‘I told you at The Burrow, I’ve had the essentials packed for days, you know, in case we needed to make a quick getaway. I packed your rucksack this morning, Harry, after you changed, and put it in here … I just had a feeling …’ ‘You’re amazing, you are,’ said Ron, handing her his bundled-up robes.”_ – I know I said that before (and I will say it again): they would not have survived a single day without Hermione.


  * _“‘We just need to wipe their memories,’ said Harry. ‘It’s better like that, it’ll throw them off the scent. If we killed them, it’d be obvious we were here.’ ‘You’re the boss,’ said Ron, sounding profoundly relieved. ‘But I’ve never done a Memory Charm.’ ‘Nor have I,’ said Hermione, ‘but I know the theory.’”_ – First of all Hermione had erased the memory of herself from her parent’s minds, so she has in fact performed a memory spell. Second, I really doubt either Ron or Harry had really ever considered killing someone. You need to mean it in order for an Unforgiveable Curse to work, remember? And neither of them is a killer.


  * So they just leave the unconscious waitress alone with two Death Eaters at the café? Like what do think will happen to her once those two wake up?


  * We learn about two spells Moody set up to prevent Snape from entering Grimmauld Place: the Tongue-Tying-Curse and what seems to be the body of Dumbledore, coming at him. We know the Curse prevents someone from speaking, though the effects don’t last. Did Moody modify the Curse though, so that it would recognize Snape and make him unable to tell anyone about Grimmauld Place? (Could he still write it down though?) And we know that the body explodes to dust when you tell him it was not you who killed Dumbledore. Was there another spell forcing Snape to tell the truth or could he have lied to the Dumbledore puppet, making it explode as well? We know he had access to Grimmauld Place, he took the second part of Lily’s letter, though that could have happened before Moody set up those spells. We know that Snape never shared the knowledge about Grimmauld Place, as no other Death Eater or Voldemort himself was ever able to enter the place, though it is not clear if Snape was unable to thanks to Moody’s Curses or if he found an excuse why he could not tell it.


  * _“He was spread-eagled on the cold black marble floor, his nose inches from one of the silver serpent tails that supported the large bathtub. He sat up. Malfoy’s gaunt, petrified face seemed branded on the inside of his eyes. Harry felt sickened by what he had seen, by the use to which Draco was now being put by Voldemort.”_ – I think this is the first time Harry has called Malfoy ‘Draco’ in his mind. Which somehow makes him (Draco) more human, less distant.




	10. Chapter 10: Kreacher’s tale

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 10: Kreacher’s tale**

  * _“Harry glanced over at the dark shapes they made on the floor beside him. Ron had had a fit of gallantry and insisted that Hermione sleep on the cushions from the sofa, so that her silhouette was raised above his. Her arm curved to the floor, her fingers inches from Ron’s. Harry wondered whether they had fallen asleep holding hands. The idea made him feel strangely lonely.”_ – Ever since book 6 there is a small invisible line drawn between Harry and Ron & Hermione. Harry noticed that first when it became more obvious that Ron and Hermione are romantically interested in each other, that they share something Harry can’t be part of. But it also with the task that lies in front of them. Hermione had mentioned several times that she and Ron had conversations about the future, where they decided they would stay with Harry, no matter what. They are in this together, but in the end it will always come down to Harry defeat Voldemort. He is the Chosen One, always singled out, with a responsibility and burden that isolates him from everyone else. Dumbledore knew this and that is why he wanted Harry to tell Ron and Hermione about the prophecy and the Horcruxes, knowing that Harry should not carry that burden alone.


  * _“The grief that had possessed him since Dumbledore’s death felt different now. The accusations he had heard from Muriel at the wedding seemed to have nested in his brain, like diseased things, infecting his memories of the wizard he had idolised. Could Dumbledore have let such things happen? Had he been like Dudley, content to watch neglect and abuse as long as it did not affect him? Could he have turned his back on a sister who was being imprisoned and hidden?”_ – I don’t think the situation is as simple as Harry makes it here. First of all Dudley was part of the abuse as well, he had bullied Harry for years. And yet, as Dumbledore had pointed out, he was a victim as well, because of the way his parents had raised him. The way Harry thinks about Dumbledore he makes him responsible for what has happened to his sister as well, even though he knows too little about it to make this judgement. He projects his own situation, his own abuse, on Dumbledore. Both Harry and Ariana had been locked up and kept a prisoner by their families; because Dudley did nothing to help Harry (and in fact made the situation even worse) Harry assumes Dumbledore did the same. But it is more likely that if that is what have happened (we learn the truth later) Dumbledore would have been a victim as well, unable to help, as he had been a child himself. Harry tries to connect what he has heard about Dumbledore with the man he knew, the man he idolised, but he forgets that back then Dumbledore had been a child himself, completely overwhelmed with the entire situation.


  * _“Had Dumbledore actually cared about Harry at all? Or had Harry been nothing more than a tool to be polished and honed, but not trusted, never confided in?”_ – One of the biggest criticisms towards Dumbledore is that he indeed had used Harry as a tool, that he had manipulated him so he would play his role in Dumbledore’s big plan. I think the situation is a bit more complex than that. But even after Harry had learned the truth, that he is the last Horcrux and has to sacrifice himself, and therefore his fear that Dumbledore had only used him comes true, he still sticks to the plan. And when Harry is in the limbo (a place that only exists in his mind) it is Dumbledore he sees, Dumbledore’s comfort he seeks. He needed the comfort of knowing that Dumbledore did care about him after all in order to move on.


  * _“Sirius seemed to have gone out of his way to annoy his parents. There were several large Gryffindor banners, faded scarlet and gold, just to underline his difference from all the rest of the Slytherin family. There were many pictures of Muggle motorcycles, and also (Harry had to admire Sirius’s nerve) several posters of bikini-clad Muggle girls; Harry could tell that they were Muggles because they remained quite stationary within their pictures, faded smiles and glazed eyes frozen on the paper.”_ – Do Pin-Up-Girls exist in the Wizarding World? If so, I think the fact that they can leave their pictures every moment must be quite annoying if you are a teenage boy and you need to… relax. But there is something about the way Rowling writes about these girls, like Sirius didn’t just put up those posters because they would annoy his parents the most (they wouldn’t have approved of half naked girl, and on top of that Muggle girls), but that they seem almost like dolls, still objects instead of human beings. Those women can be objectified in a way a wizard photograph can’t, because they always seem much more alive.


  * _“With a leap of pleasure, Harry recognised his father; his untidy, black hair stuck up at the back like Harry’s and he, too, wore glasses. Beside him was Sirius, carelessly handsome, his slightly arrogant face so much younger and happier than Harry had ever seen it alive. To Sirius’s right stood Pettigrew, more than a head shorter, plump and watery-eyed, flushed with pleasure at his inclusion in this coolest of gangs, with the much admired rebels that James and Sirius had been. On James’s left was Lupin, even then a little shabby-looking, but he had the same air of delighted surprise at finding himself liked and included … or was it simply because Harry knew how it had been, that he saw these things in the picture?”_ – There is a new sort of self-awareness Harry has developed that I quite like. He starts questioning Dumbledore, he wonders if he sees things in this photograph because he wants them to see etc. He at least partly starts to realize how his own experiences influence the way he sees things, and that there is always more than one truth.


  * _“We had a very quiet birthday tea, just us and old Bathilda, who has always been sweet to us and who dotes on Harry. We were so sorry you couldn’t come, but the Order’s got to come first and Harry’s not old enough to know it’s his birthday anyway! James is getting a bit frustrated shut up here, he tries not to show it but I can tell – also, Dumbledore’s still got his Invisibility Cloak, so no chance of little excursions.”_ – If Bathilda had visited them this means she knew about the hiding place of the Potters as well. I can’t remember why Dumbledore had the Invisibility Cloak: was it to prevent James from going outside, to keep him safe? Or did he have it because he thought it was one of the Deathly Hallows? I think it is explained at some later point though.


  * _“He read the letter again, but could not take in any more meaning than he had done the first time, and was reduced to staring at the handwriting itself. She had made her g’s the same way he did: he searched through the letter for every one of them, and each felt like a friendly little wave glimpsed from behind a veil. The letter was an incredible treasure, proof that Lily Potter had lived, really lived, that her warm hand had once moved across this parchment, tracing ink into these letters, these words, words about him, Harry, her son.”_ – Harry is not the only one crying here. Photographs, letters, voicemails and the likes become so valuable once someone is gone, and for Harry of course the situation is even more painful, as he had never had the chance to get to know his parents. This letter is something so deeply personal, because those are Lily’s word (and she writes about her son) and this is her handwriting, and she writes her g’s the same way Harry does, such a small detail but so important. It is like listening to a long lost voice, a moment frozen in time.


  * Also, it is interesting that it was Lily who wrote to Sirius, not James. Both Sirius and Lupin have talked with Harry about James, but they had a relationship with Lily as well, they were friends too. She also called Sirius Padfoot and Peter Wormtail, so she did know about their secret identities as animagus. It is sad that as much as they talked about James, Sirius and Lupin hardly ever talked about Lily, and in time all those who remember her will be gone.


  * _“Wormy was here … Pettigrew, the traitor, had seemed ‘down’, had he? Was he aware that he was seeing James and Lily alive for the last time?”_ – The letter was written shortly after Harry’s birthday (31st of July), so probably in August, but the Potters don’t die until the 31st of October, so it is possible that Wormtail has not betrayed his friends yet. Again Harry is seeing something here because he knows what will happen next, how the story ends. In hindsight Wormtail has always been the villain, because that is the only way Harry can see him.


  * We find out later that in was indeed Snape who had searched Grimmauld Place and who had taken the second part of Lily’s letter. I wonder though if he had been looking for it or if he had found it by accident. I doubt that Sirius would have told him about it, and if Snape had known the letter existed he would have gone straight to Sirius’s room to search for it, instead of searching every room in the building. It is more likely he found the letter accidently while he was looking for other things, perhaps objects that would expose him and his role as a double spy.


  * _“‘Oh yes,’ moaned Kreacher. ‘And Master Regulus had volunteered Kreacher. It was an honour, said Master Regulus, an honour for him and for Kreacher, who must be sure to do whatever the Dark Lord ordered him to do … and then to c – come home.’”_ – I think it is possible that at this time Regulus had already his doubts about joining the Death Eaters, so he had volunteered Kreacher in order to get more information about Voldemort. And that is the most important part of Regulus’s order: that Kreacher should come home afterwards. He might have already suspected that Voldemort would not care about Kreacher’s life or wanted to get rid of any witness. Regulus had managed to infiltrate a spy without Voldemort even noticing.


  * _“‘Elf magic isn’t like wizard’s magic, is it?’ said Ron. ‘I mean, they can Apparate and Disapparate in and out of Hogwarts when we can’t.’ There was silence as Harry digested this. How could Voldemort have made such a mistake? But even as he thought this, Hermione spoke, and her voice was icy. ‘Of course, Voldemort would have considered the ways of house-elves far beneath his notice, just like all the pure-bloods who treat them like animals … it would never have occurred to him that they might have magic that he didn’t.’”_ – Voldemort’s biggest mistake had always been that he underestimated everyone he did not seem worthy enough. Someone like Voldemort did not even think of house elves as beings in the first place, so he failed to notice that they have a magic of their own, a magic that can work in places a wizards’s magic can’t. Something that Regulus it seems did understand.


  * _“‘Master Regulus was very worried, very worried,’ croaked Kreacher. ‘Master Regulus told Kreacher to stay hidden, and not to leave the house. […]”_ – Obviously Voldemort should not know that Kreacher had survived, because he knew about one of the hiding places of one of the Horcruxes, even though he was not aware of it. However we know that Kreacher will later get involved with both Narcissa and Bellatrix and that he had been part of the plan to make Harry believe Sirius was held hostage in the Ministry. So at some point it seems Voldemort did learn that the house elf of the Black family was still alive, still in the position to tell everyone what he had seen. And after Sirius’s death this very house elf would belong to none other than Harry Potter himself, who, as we see, can order Kreacher to tell him everything about that night. Again Voldemort did underestimate the importance of Kreacher. Perhaps he had forgotten about him, perhaps he thought Kreacher would not tell anyone what he had seen, or he thought it would not matter, that even if somebody knew his protections are good enough. (Though several Death Eaters saw how weak Dumbledore was the night he died only Snape knew enough about the Horcruxes to probably realize that Dumbledore had found another one)


  * _“‘And he ordered – Kreacher to leave – without him. And he told Kreacher – to go home – and never to tell my mistress – what he had done – but to destroy – the first locket. And he drank – all the potion – and Kreacher swapped the lockets – and watched … as Master Regulus … was dragged beneath the water … and …’”_ – Here is the thing: Regulus didn’t have to die. He could have ordered Kreacher to drink the poison again and could have ordered him to bring them both back home afterwards, like he did the first time. This way they both would have survived. But he had wanted to spare his house elf the pain of drinking the poison again. He sacrificed himself, perhaps knowing he would die anyway once Voldemort found out about him being a traitor, hoping that Kreacher would succeed where he no longer could, because Voldemort would never suspect a house elf to steal his Horcrux. And just… I love Regulus a lot and he doesn’t get nearly as much appreciation as he should. He gave his life to stop Voldemort. He had always been kind to Kreacher to the point that he couldn’t bear to watch Kreacher drinking the poison again. He died and nobody knew what he had done, that he became a hero, because Kreacher was not allowed to tell his family. Sirius died without ever learning the truth about his little brother. And I think Regulus acted much more selflessly than say Snape. He deserves much more love.


  * _‘Harry, Kreacher doesn’t think like that,’ said Hermione, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand. ‘He’s a slave; house-elves are used to bad, even brutal treatment; what Voldemort did to Kreacher wasn’t that far out of the common way. What do wizard wars mean to an elf like Kreacher? He’s loyal to people who are kind to him, and Mrs Black must have been, and Regulus certainly was, so he served them willingly and parroted their beliefs. I know what you’re going to say,’ she went on, as Harry began to protest, ‘that Regulus changed his mind … but he doesn’t seem to have explained that to Kreacher, does he? And I think I know why. Kreacher and Regulus’s family were all safer if they kept to the old pure-blood line. Regulus was trying to protect them all. […] Sirius was horrible to Kreacher, Harry, and it’s no good looking like that, you know it’s true. Kreacher had been alone for a long time when Sirius came to live here, and he was probably starving for a bit of affection. I’m sure “Miss Cissy” and “Miss Bella” were perfectly lovely to Kreacher when he turned up, so he did them a favour and told them everything they wanted to know. I’ve said all along that wizards would pay for how they treat house-elves. Well, Voldemort did … and so did Sirius.’”_ – Well said. House Elves do not care about politics. Their whole life centers around their masters. They are devoted whenever they are treated with some kindness, and no matter how horrible Mrs. Black appeared otherwise, it is clear that she was kind to Kreacher, and so was Regulus. Even Bellatrix and Narcissa knew this, though I’m pretty sure that Bellatrix does not think of a house elf as a being with feelings as well. We know the Malfoys treated their house elf so bad he started to act against their orders. And in that way Sirius was the same with Kreacher. He might not have physically hurt Kreacher the way the Malfoys did with Dobby, but his open hate for him caused enough damage as well. And we see what little it takes for Kreacher to start changing his behaviour towards Harry; Harry starts treating him with respect, with kindness, and Kreacher pays it back with loyalty towards him. (Also Harry does not argue with Hermione here, he knows she is right with what she said about Sirius and how he treated Kreacher)




	11. Chapter 11: The Bribe

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 11: The Bribe**

  * The Death Eaters observing Grimmauld Place are only there because they assume this is where Harry might be hiding, as they know he owns the place. Hermione says they can’t know for sure, otherwise they would have sent in Snape, but that’s the point: why didn’t they do this? They want to know where Harry is and Snape is the only one who has access to the place. Did Snape find another excuse why he doesn’t check the place?


  * _“‘– I had to Apparate very precisely on to the top step outside the front door to be sure that they would not see me. […]”_ – So whenever a place is protected by the Fidelius Charm you have to apparate in and out so that the place stays hidden? (Why couldn’t Lupin apparate inside ten? Did Dumbledore put a spell on the place that would make that impossible the way you can’t apparate at Hogwarts?) If Lupin would have walked straight towards Grimmauld Place the Death Eaters would have known someone is in there, but would they have been able to see the place? (Also can you break a Fidelius Charm or does it stay forever? Will the house always been hidden for everyone who does not know about it?)


  * _“‘There were about a dozen of them, but they didn’t know you were there, Harry. Arthur heard a rumour that they tried to torture your whereabouts out of Scrimgeour before they killed him; if it’s true, he didn’t give you away.’”_ – Of course with the knowledge that Scrimgeour had died it did seem like he was the one who might have told the Death Eaters about the whereabouts of Harry, but we learn now that he died protecting Harry, no matter his opinion of Harry, and that the Death Eaters simultaneously searched every place that had any connection to Harry. Scrimgeour knew he would die anyway, but he died the way any Auror would, protecting innocents.


  * _“‘Naturally many people have deduced what has happened: there has been such a dramatic change in Ministry policy in the last few days, and many are whispering that Voldemort must be behind it. However, that is the point: they whisper. They daren’t confide in each other, not knowing whom to trust; they are scared to speak out, in case their suspicions are true and their families are targeted. Yes, Voldemort is playing a very clever game. Declaring himself might have provoked open rebellion: remaining masked has created confusion, uncertainty and fear.’”_ – ‘The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.’ You can’t fight against something that does not exist. People are aware that something is going on with the Ministry, that something has changed, but everything seems legal. They might have suspicions but that is exactly what the Death Eaters and Voldemort want: to create a state of constant doubt, where everyone questions everyone, and you no longer know who to trust. If Voldemort would move in the open it would give people something they can fight against. This way he controls the entire Wizarding World (the Ministry, Hogwarts, the press etc), but in a way that makes it nearly impossible to resist.


  * _“‘And this dramatic change in Ministry policy,’ said Harry, ‘involves warning the wizarding world against me instead of Voldemort?’ ‘That’s certainly part of it,’ said Lupin, ‘and it is a masterstroke. Now that Dumbledore is dead, you – the Boy Who Lived – were sure to be the symbol and rallying point for any resistance to Voldemort. But by suggesting that you had a hand in the old hero’s death, Voldemort has not only set a price upon your head, but sown doubt and fear amongst many who would have defended you.”_ – Unknowingly (or maybe because she does not care about anyone but herself) Rita Skeeter plays in the hands of Voldemort: with her book she has started to seed doubt about Dumbledore, and know the Daily Prophet starts seeding doubt about Harry, both heroes of the resistance. Skeeter suggests that Dumbledore might have been involved in the Dark Arts himself, the Prophet suggest that Harry might have been involved in Dumbledore’s death. The only other witnesses were after all Death Eaters, and the fact that Harry is on the run makes him even more suspicious. History can be rewritten, public opinions can be changed. Voldemort understands the power the press has, it has already worked for him before, when the Ministry had ordered the Prophet to portray Harry as a liar and had denied Voldemort’s return. Now Voldemort uses the press again to influence how the Wizarding World is thinking about Harry.


  * _“’The Ministry of Magic is undertaking a survey of so-called ‘Muggle-borns’, the better to understand how they came to possess magical secrets. ‘“Recent research undertaken by the Department of Mysteries reveals that magic can only be passed from person to person when wizards reproduce. Where no proven wizarding ancestry exists, therefore, the so-called Muggle-born is likely to have obtained magical power by theft or force. ‘“The Ministry is determined to root out such usurpers of magical power, and to this end has issued an invitation to every so-called Muggle-born to present themselves for interview by the newly appointed Muggle-born Registration Commission.”’_ – There are some very obvious parallels to Nazi Germany (even more so in the Ministry itself). This is a parallel to the so called ‘Ariernachweis’ (Aryan certificate, more about it [here](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FAryan_certificate&t=OTJlZGI0NDczMzA0ZjRjYWRhOGJkZWJhMDBmMGMyOTI1ODU1ODc1Yyxxc1h1VVZRVw%3D%3D&b=t%3AIXr41Te0aPuWZVnviayIfQ&p=https%3A%2F%2Fhufflly-puffs.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F617183660365463552%2Fharry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows-chapter&m=1)). In both cases you have to prove your heritage, prove that you are the right kind, a Pureblood (or at least Halfblood) or an Aryan. The parallel doesn’t go as far as involving the Holocaust or any kind of genocide. We know of Muggleborns that have been killed, but those appear to be single events, not organised mass killings.


  * Also the name ‘Voldemort’ has been mentioned several times by now. We know of the Taboo Curse and that this is how the Death Eaters found the trio at Tottenham Court Road, but the protective charms surrounding Grimmauld Place keep them from finding Harry, Ron and Hermione in there. It is possible that they do know somebody used the name at this place, but perhaps they can’t place the exact location. If they would know for sure they would have told Snape by now.


  * _“Ron glanced at Hermione, then said, ‘What if pure-bloods and half-bloods swear a Muggle-born’s part of their family? I’ll tell everyone Hermione’s my cousin –’”_ – And this is another parallel, though a different kind. Because even in the darkest times there were still people risking their lives to hide Jews, faking documents etc. There will always be people who will choose to do the right thing, who will choose kindness, and sometimes it is hard to remember that as well.


  * _“‘Attendance is now compulsory for every young witch and wizard,’ he replied. ‘That was announced yesterday. It’s a change, because it was never obligatory before. Of course, nearly every witch and wizard in Britain has been educated at Hogwarts, but their parents had the right to teach them at home or send them abroad if they preferred. This way, Voldemort will have the whole wizarding population under his eye from a young age. And it’s also another way of weeding out Muggle-borns, because students must be given Blood Status – meaning that they have proven to the Ministry that they are of wizard descent – before they are allowed to attend.’”_ – First of all it is interesting that in the Wizarding World compulsory education does not exist. We know that parents can send their children to a foreign school – Malfoy mentioned once that his father had preferred Durmstrang for him – but children can also be home-schooled. Of course by making attending Hogwarts compulsory Voldemort can make sure to influence the entire future generations of the British Wizarding population. We know that he had once wished to teach at Hogwarts and Dumbledore had assumed that this way he had wanted to raise an army, gain more followers, hand pick them the way Slughorn does. Students spend ¾ of the year at Hogwarts – a lot of time to influence them, manipulate them, form them. And of course, as Lupin mentioned, this way Voldemort can make sure Muggleborn wizards and witches have no access to magic, no way how to learn it, and will be longer part of the Wizarding World.


  * _“‘I thought you’d say that,’ said Lupin, looking disappointed. ‘But I might still be of some use to you. You know what I am and what I can do. I could come with you to provide protection. There would be no need to tell me exactly what you were up to.’”_ – But wouldn’t it be dangerous for Ron, Hermione and Harry as well every time Lupin transforms into a werewolf? He has no control over himself then. Unless of course he still drinks the Wolfbane Potion, but I have always been under the impression he only did this at his time at Hogwarts, where Snape made that potion for him. And it is incredibly sad that Lupin only thinks of himself as useful as a monster, becoming a weapon to protect them.


  * You can already tell that something is off by the way Lupin keeps referring to his wife as ‘Tonks’ instead of ‘Dora’, like he tries to keep his distance even when talking about her.


  * _“‘Don’t you understand what I’ve done to my wife and my unborn child? I should never have married her, I’ve made her an outcast!’ Lupin kicked aside the chair he had overturned. ‘You have only ever seen me amongst the Order, or under Dumbledore’s protection at Hogwarts! You don’t know how most of the wizarding world sees creatures like me! When they know of my affliction, they can barely talk to me! Don’t you see what I’ve done? Even her own family is disgusted by our marriage, what parents want their only daughter to marry a werewolf? And the child – the child –’”_ – I actually feel more sorry for Tonks than for Lupin here, and not for the reasons Lupin lists here. She fell in love with a man who does not want to be with her, not even because he doesn’t love her back, but because he can’t love himself, can’t see how anybody else could ever love him. Tonks is not a child or naïve; she was fully aware who Lupin is when she married him, knew about his social standing and the consequences it would bring in becoming his wife. And still she wanted him, choose him to spend the rest of her life with. And yet Lupin acts as if she doesn’t know or doesn’t care, and makes decision on her behalf, deciding what is best for her. And Harry is right in being angry with Lupin, because what is best for Tonks is a husband who supports her. Lupin is terrified by the idea of loving someone, of being loved in return, because he does not believe he deserves any of this. He thinks he is nothing more than what the world sees in him – a monster – and sooner or later he will always hurt the ones he loves, physically and emotionally.


  * _“‘My kind don’t usually breed! It will be like me, I am convinced of it – how can I forgive myself, when I knowingly risked passing on my own condition to an innocent child? And if, by some miracle, it is not like me, then it will be better off, a hundred times so, without a father of whom it must always be ashamed!’”_ – First of all I think the term ‘breed’ is only used in reference to animals, and this is how Lupin sees himself: not even human. Second I don’t think Lupin is the first werewolf to produce a child, there must be some data on how high the percentage is those children become werewolves as well. And this whole situation reminds me of someone who has a condition that can’t be cured and that will be transmitted. Of course every case is individual, but there are many disabled people who choose to get children, despite knowing their children will be very likely disabled as well, arguing their lives are still valuable. Lupin saw his condition never as anything other than a burden, a curse. He fails to see the value of his own life, and therefore thinks his child is doomed even before it is born.


  * _“‘I think you’re feeling a bit of a daredevil,’ Harry said. ‘You fancy stepping into Sirius’s shoes –’ ‘Harry, no!’ Hermione begged him, but he continued to glare into Lupin’s livid face. ‘I’d never have believed this,’ Harry said. ‘The man who taught me to fight Dementors – a coward.’”_ –Ok, first thing Harry admits that Sirius indeed had acted reckless, and that this contributed in his death as well (though he does not say that aloud), just as he did not argue against Hermione that Sirius had treated Kreacher badly. The way he has stopped idolising Dumbledore he has done the same with Sirius. He still loves him but can also see his flaws. And the same happens now with Lupin (though Harry never saw him as saint-like the way he did with Dumbledore and Sirius). Lupin is indeed a coward, because risking his life to protect the trio is less frightening to him than staying with his wife and becoming a father. It means he has to face his own demons and nothing is scarier than that. Helping Harry, risking his life, maybe even dying in doing so, is in his eyes a way to redeem himself, to give his life some sort of value. And it is the last thing Harry wants.


  * _“‘He had it coming to him,’ said Harry. Broken images were racing each other through his mind: Sirius falling through the Veil; Dumbledore suspended, broken, in mid-air; a flash of green light and his mother’s voice, begging for mercy … ‘Parents,’ said Harry, ‘shouldn’t leave their kids unless – unless they’ve got to.’”_ – Harry’s own parents, Sirius, Dumbledore, all died protecting him, all died to make a better world. And all Harry ever wanted was for them to be there. I think Lupin offered his help for the wrong reasons, but still you can’t judge him for wanting a better world for his child, a world that can’t exist as long as Voldemort is still alive. But all Harry sees is yet another orphan, which unfortunately is what will happen to Teddy Lupin.




	12. Chapter 12: Magic is Might

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 12: Magic is Might**

  * This chapter again starts with an omnipresent narrator, before it switches to Harry’s POV. We see Grimmauld Place from the perspectives of the Muggles living there, who gave up wondering why there is no number 12 and start noticing a bunch of weirdly dressed people who seem utterly fascinated with the absence of number 12. I always like those chapters/scenes from the Muggle perspective, who notice certain things and are obviously affected by this war as well, even though they are not aware of a war going on in the first place. To them the entire situation is simply odd: the missing house, the strange people observing the place, not knowing that this is a hiding place, and the strange men are all murderers.


  * _“The usual low whisper of ‘Severus Snape?’ greeted him, the chill wind swept him and his tongue rolled up for a moment. ‘I didn’t kill you,’ he said, once it had unrolled, then held his breath as the dusty jinx-figure exploded.”_ – I wonder why they didn’t get rid of this jinx. Maybe the magic is too advanced (even for Hermione), maybe they keep it in case Snape comes back. By now though it is simply something they got used to, the way you can get used to everything. I always wondered what happened to the house after the war, if Harry moved back in or sold it and what happened to Kreacher as well.


  * _“Nothing in the room, however, was more dramatically different than the house-elf who now came hurrying towards Harry, dressed in a snowy-white towel, his ear hair as clean and fluffy as cotton wool, Regulus’s locket bouncing on his thin chest.” –_ And all it took was a little bit of kindness and respect from Harry’s side. Also, apparently the locket does not count as clothing. Harry gave it to Kreacher without freeing him in doing so.


  * Isn’t it interesting that the news that Snape became the new headmaster comes out on September 1st, the day the new school year starts? If anyone had been wondering if Hogwarts was infiltrated by Death Eaters as well they got their confirmation now, when it is already too late. Some might even hear these news while they are already at the Hogwarts Express or later at the start-of-term banquet. Even if they know before there is no chance to drop out of Hogwarts, as it is now compulsory. Hogwarts used to be one of the safest places in the Wizarding World and I think many parents had the hope it still is in these cruel times. Now though they have to send their children at a place where three known Death Eaters work, not knowing what their children will expect there.


  * _“[…]And,’ Harry went on bitterly, drawing up a chair, ‘I can’t see that the other teachers have got any choice but to stay. If the Ministry and Voldemort are behind Snape, it’ll be a choice between staying and teaching, or a nice few years in Azkaban – and that’s if they’re lucky. I reckon they’ll stay to try and protect the students.’”_ – I think it is not so much fearing Azkaban that makes the teachers stay but rather the fact that they want to protect the students, that they try to make the best of a bad situation and help where they can.


  * _“‘Snape could send Phineas Nigellus to look inside this house for him,’ Hermione explained to Ron as she resumed her seat. ‘But let him try it now, all Phineas Nigellus will be able to see is the inside of my handbag.’”_ – We know though that because of that Phineas Nigellus was able to tell Snape about the Forrest of Dean and where to find Snape. Hermione wanted to prevent Phineas from spying in them, but instead she took the spy with them.


  * _“‘I am,’ said Harry. ‘I don’t think we’re going to be much better prepared than we are now even if we skulk around the Ministry entrance for another month. The longer we put it off, the further away that locket could be. There’s already a good chance Umbridge has chucked it away; the thing doesn’t open.’”_ – And yet, as it turns out, they are utterly unprepared. They know how to get in, but not what to do once they are inside. They knew absolute nothing about the people they impersonate (they didn’t even know who Harry would impersonate until 5 minutes before it), so the chance to get caught is really high. However Harry might be right that they can’t get better prepared. There was no chance to get to know more about the people they would impersonate or about the Ministry than they did, so their plan would always rely on a lot of improvising.


  * _“‘Unless,’ said Ron, ‘she’s found a way of opening it and she’s now possessed.’ ‘Wouldn’t make any difference to her, she was so evil in the first place,’ Harry shrugged.”_ – We do see the effect of the locket has when the trio is wearing it, how they become the worst version of themselves. And that is the really horrifying thing about Umbridge – there is seemingly no change in her behaviour, despite her wearing the locket. She has been evil before, if anything the locket just empowers her core personality.


  * _“‘We know everything important,’ Harry went on, addressing Hermione. ‘We know they’ve stopped Apparition in and out of the Ministry. We know only the most senior Ministry members are allowed to connect their homes to the Floo Network now, because Ron heard those two Unspeakables complaining about it. […]”_ – And we see exactly why there are recently so many changes about the ways you can enter the Ministry. They want complete control over who enters and who leaves the Ministry. In case of an emergency they seal up all the fireplaces, making it impossible to leave the place. Complete surveillance.


  * _“‘I want Gregorovitch.’ ‘Er wohnt hier nicht mehr!’ she cried, shaking her head. ‘He no live here! He no live here! I know him not!’ Abandoning the attempt to close the door, she began to back away down the dark hall, and Harry followed, gliding towards her, and his long-fingered hand had drawn his wand. ‘Where is he?’ ‘Das weiß ich nicht! He move! I know not, I know not!’”_ – The only time a German character appears and I must admit I feel a bit offended, because really we don’t speak English that badly. And then of course she gets killed (and her family as well).


  * _“‘I hate it, I hate the fact that he can get inside me, that I have to watch him when he’s most dangerous. But I’m going to use it.’”_ – Harry Potter and the lack of consent, part 34567. Harry has no real agency over his body and he never had. Voldemort can get inside him, forces Harry to watch him torture and kill, and Harry has no control over it. However it seems the connection is one-sided so far, the way it had been in Harry’s fifth year at Hogwarts, before Voldemort had been aware of their connection and used it against Harry. Harry can see what Voldemort does, but Voldemort is not aware of that, or otherwise he would use their connection to get to know where Harry is. Again Voldemort underestimates his opponent, because he does not even think that about closing his mind or that Harry could use their connection against him.


  * _“Hermione Disapparated with Ron first, then came back for Harry.”_ – Despite each of them disapparating on their own to the Ministry entrance they take no chance this time, both boys apparating with Hermione, to make sure they land exactly where they need to.


  * _“Within two minutes, Ron stood before them, as small and ferrety as the sick wizard, and wearing the navy blue robes that had been folded in his bag. ‘Weird he wasn’t wearing them today, wasn’t it, seeing how much he wanted to go? Anyway, I’m Reg Cattermole, according to the label in the back.’”_ – Weird indeed. All their preparation and they don’t question why Reg Cattermole would not wear his usual work clothes that day. Of course as we soon find out Reg Cattermole is the very last person they should have impersonated that day, though if it wasn’t for Ron, Hermione and Harry’s meddling chances are high his wife would have been sent to Azkaban.


  * And it is really an odd coincidence that Harry transforms into someone who clearly is in a position of power, who is the accuser, and Ron into the husband of one of the accused. And how both use their position to save Mary Cattermole.


  * _“Now a gigantic statue of black stone dominated the scene. It was rather frightening, this vast sculpture of a witch and a wizard sitting on ornately carved thrones, looking down at the Ministry workers toppling out of fireplaces below them. Engraved in foot-high letters at the base of the statue were the words: MAGIC IS MIGHT. […]Harry looked more closely and realised that what he had thought were decoratively carved thrones were actually mounds of carved humans: hundreds and hundreds of naked bodies, men, women and children, all with rather stupid, ugly faces, twisted and pressed together to support the weight of the handsomely robed wizards. ‘Muggles,’ whispered Hermione. ‘In their rightful place. Come on, let’s get going.’”_ \- *shudders* Nazi-parallel number… I lost counting. Wizards portrayed as the master race, whereas Muggles (and Muggleborns as well I assume) aren’t even seen as human beings. In this new society their place is at the lowest of low. I don’t think it is the goal to kill them all, but rather to turn them into slaves, completely controlling them and do with them as they like, as wizards have the means to fully control Muggles.




	13. Chapter 13: The Muggle-Born Registration Commission

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_ **

**Chapter 13: The Muggle-Born Registration Commission**

  * _“‘Ah, well. It’s only a matter of time,’ said Thicknesse. ‘If you ask me, the blood traitors are as bad as the Mudbloods. Good day, Runcorn.’”_ – First of all, the term ‘Mudblood’ has now become acceptable. The Minister of Magic uses it in public, a word that a few years ago was generally seen as an incredible hurtful insult. Second, we know that Thicknesse is under the Imperius Curse and that me wonder how exactly that Curse works. Do you only cast it once, do you have to renew the Curse? I guess that depends on the victim and how strong their will is to fight back. How precise do the instructions have to be? I mean Thicknesse isn’t just forced to do a single action but instead to completely change the Ministry policy. How much of the old Thicknesse is still there? Did he already agree with many of the ideas of the Death Eaters, which would have made him an easier target? Controlling the Minster and at large the entire Ministry is a really complex task, especially in the way Lupin described: that people would get suspicious of the new Ministry policy, but not enough to openly rebel against it.


  * _“Panic pulsed in the pit of his stomach. As he passed gleaming wooden door after gleaming wooden door, each bearing a small plaque with the owner’s name and occupation upon it, the might of the Ministry, its complexity, its impenetrability, seemed to force themselves upon him so that the plan he had been carefully concocting with Ron and Hermione over the past four weeks seemed laughably childish. They had concentrated all their efforts on getting inside without being detected: they had not given a moment’s thought to what they would do if they were forced to separate.”_ – They are completely underprepared and they lack the resources to get more prepared. Not just by infiltrating the Ministry but with their entire plan to hunt down Horcruxes and destroy them. It was simply a chance of luck that they found out who R.A.B. is (they could have hide anywhere else than Grimmauld Place) or that Umbridge would be wearing the locket instead of keeping at safe at home for example. There are still just three teenagers, not even fully educated, stumbling into this, not knowing what they do, leaving a mess everywhere. Thanks Dumbledore.


  * _“They were all waving and twiddling their wands in unison, and squares of coloured paper were flying in every direction like little pink kites. After a few seconds, Harry realised that there was a rhythm to the proceedings, that the papers all formed the same pattern, and after a few more seconds he realised that what he was watching was the creation of pamphlets, that the paper squares were pages, which when assembled, folded and magicked into place, fell into neat stacks beside each witch or wizard.”_ – It was at an episode of the ‘Witch Please’ podcast (I think this one) where they had wondered why the Ministry would make every single pamphlet individually instead of using a printing press or something like that. It seems like an incredible dull repetitive work, so perhaps it is meant as a punishment and degradation to those doing it.


  * _“MUDBLOODS and the Dangers They Pose to a Peaceful Pure-Blood Society Beneath the title was a picture of a red rose, with a simpering face in the middle of its petals, being strangled by a green weed with fangs and a scowl.”_ – Again, the term ‘Mublood’ is used, this time on an official Ministry pamphlet, which therefore makes it socially acceptable now to use it everywhere. Also the red rose of course is a symbol for England, so subtextually the new regime in the Wizarding World is associated with nationalism. Which kinda makes sense given that it resembles every fascist regime ever known.


  * _“The witch glanced towards the shining mahogany door facing the space full of pamphlet-makers; Harry looked too, and rage reared in him like a snake. Where there might have been a peephole on a Muggle front door, a large, round eye with a bright blue iris had been set into the wood; an eye that was shockingly familiar to anybody who had known Alastor Moody.”_ – Using body parts of defeated enemies (or rather their victims) is – what a surprise – also a thing Nazis did. It displays a complete lack of empathy and respect for the deceased. Also, I wonder how exactly the eye works. Apparently it does not need access to a body in order to work; the way Harry describes it later it almost works like a peephole. Of course we don’t know if the magical eye had completely replaced Mad Eye’s natural eye or if enough of it was still left to use the new eye as reinforcement.


  * _“‘Undesirable Number One,’ Harry muttered under his breath as he replaced Mr Weasley’s folder and shut the drawer. He had an idea he knew who that was, and sure enough, as he straightened up and glanced around the office for fresh hiding places, he saw a poster of himself on the wall, with the words UNDESIRABLE NO. 1 emblazoned across his chest. A little pink note was stuck to it, with a picture of a kitten in the corner. Harry moved across to read it and saw that Umbridge had written ‘To be punished’.”_ – That little note makes the whole thing so ridiculous, as if they were still at Hogwarts and Umbridge would still be fighting her own little vendetta against Harry, instead of Harry becoming a public enemy, with a death sentence hanging over his head.


  * _“Harry opened the book at random and saw a full-page photograph of two teenage boys, both laughing immoderately with their arms around each other’s shoulders. Dumbledore, now with elbow-length hair, had grown a tiny, wispy beard that recalled the one on Krum’s chin that had so annoyed Ron. The boy who roared in silent amusement beside Dumbledore had a gleeful, wild look about him. His golden hair fell in curls to his shoulders. Harry wondered whether it was a young Doge, but before he could check the caption, the door of the office opened.”_ – I think this moment works great by comparison to the moment when Harry had found the photo of the Marauders in Sirius’s old room. Back then he knew all the people in the photograph, he knew what would later happen to them, how one would betray the others. He knew the context. But at the same time he had wondered if he had projected something in this photograph because of his knowledge. This time Harry does not know who the second person in the photograph is, the relationship between the two men, ect. He is lacking context. He only sees two friends, without knowing what will happen to them in the future, only a single moment captured in time.


  * Arthur Weasley confronting (who he assumes is) Runcorn is less brave and much more recklessly stupidity. He knows that his family is being watched, that despite being a pure-blood he is not safe, as he (and his family) are considered to be blood traitors. On top of that he is also in the Order and it is known how close the Weasley family is to Harry Potter. And yet Arthur confronts a very powerful member of the Ministry, a man that we know shows little to no mercy to people this new regime considers not worthy enough. Sometimes it is the best to say nothing at all, despite your anger, in order to keep yourself (and your loved ones) safe. Choose your battles.


  * _“He did it instinctively, without any sort of plan, because he hated the sight of her walking alone into the dungeon: as the door began to swing closed, he slipped into the courtroom behind her.”_ – I mean it is kinda your fault that her husband isn’t with her today. But this is also who Harry is; deciding on instinct alone, doing something because it is the right thing to do, without a detailed plan.


  * _“At the foot of the platform a bright silver, long-haired cat prowled up and down, up and down, and Harry realised that it was there to protect the prosecutors from the despair that emanated from the Dementors: that was for the accused to feel, not the accusers.”_ – This is such a cruel display of power. The accused are there to defend themselves, to fight for their lives, and yet they are surrounded by Dementors, as if they are already found guilty, with every kind of hope and strength drained from them. I sincerely doubt that any of the accused leaves this court room as a free man or woman; this is nothing more than a show trial, to demonstrate the absolute power the Ministry has over these people.


  * _“The Patronus, he was sure, was Umbridge’s, and it glowed brightly because she was so happy here, in her element, upholding the twisted laws she had helped to write.”_ – And this is the reason why Umbridge is the best villain in the series to me, the most frightening, not Voldemort. Voldemort is abstract, almost like a comic book villain. Umbridge though is very real; everyone knows someone like Umbridge. She does not care about ideologies, she only cares about power, and she does everything to abuse said power. She is a sadist through and through, feeding on the despair of others.


  * _“‘I’m behind you,’ he whispered into Hermione’s ear. As he had expected, she jumped so violently she nearly overturned the bottle of ink with which she was supposed to be recording the interview, but both Umbridge and Yaxley were concentrating upon Mrs Cattermole, and this went unnoticed.”_ – One of the differences between Harry and Hermione is that Hermione hates to do anything unprepared. She always needs to know as much as she can before entering a new situation. Harry is much better as her at improvising and adjusting to new situation. He thinks quick and makes decisions in the heat of the moment, without thinking about the consequences. He needed to learn that skill in order to survive. In the middle of a fight you don’t have the time to analyse the situation and figure out what to do next. You act on instinct. Which is why Harry in this moment is much calmer than Hermione.


  * _“‘T – took?’ sobbed Mrs Cattermole. ‘I didn’t t – take it from anybody. I b – bought it when I was eleven years old. It – it – it – chose me.’”_ – In this book we learn quite a few things about wandlore and especially the ownership of a wand. We also learn how special the relationship between a wizard/witch and their wand is – the wand becomes a part of them, without it (or when they forced to use a different wand) they feel incomplete. What Mary Cattermole describes here is such an essential part in every wizard/witch’s life – the moment you get your wand, the wand that chooses you, to make it your own. And Umbridge (and the Ministry) takes this moment away, abuses it and reframes it, to fit their own propaganda.


  * _“‘Expec – expecto patronum,’ said Hermione. Nothing happened. ‘It’s the only spell she ever has trouble with,’ Harry told a completely bemused Mrs Cattermole. ‘Bit unfortunate, really … come on, Hermione …’”_ – We know of two spells that Harry is particularly good at that Ron and Hermione aren’t. Harry is able to fight of the Imperius Curse and he was able to produce a Patronus at a very young age. Both requires a strong will. However I think the reason why Hermione has trouble doing the Patronus Charm is because she is the most emotional of the three. She cries easily and she constantly puts herself under pressure. Even though Hermione has not lived through the same horrors as Harry the Dementors influence her more. Harry has through all the trauma he has experienced built up resilience. And after all this is only the second time Hermione encounters Dementors (the first time she fainted).


  * _“Hermione’s Patronus vanished with a pop as she turned a horror-struck face to Harry. ‘Harry, if we’re trapped here –!’ ‘We won’t be if we move fast,’ said Harry. He addressed the silent group behind them, who were all gawping at him. ‘Who’s got wands?’ About half of them raised their hands. ‘OK, all of you who haven’t got wands need to attach yourself to somebody who has. We’ll need to be fast – before they stop us. Come on.’”_ – Again we see how different Hermione and Harry react in an unknown situation. Hermione panics – her Patronus vanishes because she can no longer concentrate. Harry on the other hand immediately seizes the initiative and takes over a leader role and gives commands, making sure everyone is safe. He has all the qualities that will make him later a great Auror.




	14. Chapter 14: The Thief

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 14: The Thief**

  * _“Harry watched, horrified, as she tore open Ron’s shirt. He had always thought of Splinching as something comical, but this … his insides crawled unpleasantly as Hermione laid bare Ron’s upper arm, where a great chunk of flesh was missing, scooped cleanly away as though by a knife.” –_ So basically splinching means that not your entire body appareted, some parts are missing. Which technically means you can die through splinching, if a limb is missing or something, due the blood loss. Splinching usually happens when a wizard or witch isn’t determined and concentrated enough on their destination, but in this case of side-along apparition neither Harry or Ron knew where Hermione would transport them. It is possible that Ron started to let go the moment they arrived at Grimmauld Place. However splinching has had happened before, during one of their Apparation lessons, to Susan Bones, who lost her left leg. So for one thing Harry has seen somebody being splinched before and the other thing is that in the case of Susan Bones the entire thing has been described way less bloody and life-threatening.


  * _“‘But then, where’s he? Hang on … you don’t mean he’s at Grimmauld Place? He can’t get in there?’ Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears as she nodded. ‘Harry, I think he can. I – I forced him to let go with a Revulsion Jinx, but I’d already taken him inside the Fidelius Charm’s protection. Since Dumbledore died, we’re Secret Keepers, so I’ve given him the secret, haven’t I?’”_ – I think I wondered about this before but can you undo a Fidelius Charm? Will Grimmauld Place stay forever hidden, only accessible to those who know about it? Which by now would be the members of the Order and Voldemort and the Death Eaters. Or is it even possible to put a new Fidelius Charm on it? Like what happened to the house after the war? Lived somebody there or was it impossible due to the Fidelius Charm (and those who were secret keepers)?


  * _“Gloomy and oppressive though the house was, it had been their one safe refuge: even, now that Kreacher was so much happier and friendlier, a kind of home. With a twinge of regret that had nothing to do with food, Harry imagined the house-elf busying himself over the steak and kidney pie that Harry, Ron and Hermione would never eat.”_ – Somehow that’s the worst part, isn’t it, that Kreacher might think they left him behind or that the Death Eaters would torture and interrogate him.


  * _“‘If we’re staying, we should put some protective enchantments around the place,’ she replied, and raising her wand, she began to walk in a wide circle around Harry and Ron, murmuring incantations as she went. Harry saw little disturbances in the surrounding air: it was as if Hermione had cast a heat haze upon their clearing. ‘Salvio hexia … Protego totalum … Repello Muggletum … Muffliato … You could get out the tent, Harry …’ ‘Tent?’ ‘In the bag!’”_ – Back in the Ministry, in an unknown situation where they had to improvise, Harry gave the commands and Hermine panicked. Now though the situation is different. They are no longer in immediate danger, so Harry relaxes and doesn’t really know what to do next. Hermione however is in her element. This is something she had planned, she had prepared herself for. She knew that something like this might happen, that they have to escape immediately, to a place for away from any other humans. She had practiced those protective spells, she knew that might need a tent etc. Hermione is best when she can organize, Harry when he has to improvise.


  * _“‘I thought this belonged to that bloke Perkins at the Ministry?’ he asked, starting to disentangle the tent pegs. ‘Apparently he didn’t want it back, his lumbago’s so bad,’ said Hermione, now performing complicated figure of eight movements with her wand, ‘so Ron’s dad said I could borrow it. Erecto!’ she added, pointing her wand at the misshapen canvas, which in one fluid motion rose into the air and settled, fully constructed, on to the ground before Harry, out of whose startled hands a tent peg soared, to land with a final thud at the end of a guy rope.”_ – You know, this would have been a perfect opportunity for Hermione to look at Harry and ask him “Are you a wizard, or what?” because apparently Harry has forget he is one.


  * _“‘I’m sorry,’ Ron said, moaning a little as he raised himself to look at them, ‘but it feels like a – a jinx, or something. Can’t we call him You-Know-Who – please?’ ‘Dumbledore said fear of a name –’ began Harry. ‘In case you hadn’t noticed, mate, calling You-Know-Who by his name didn’t do Dumbledore much good in the end,’ Ron snapped back. ‘Just – just show You-Know-Who some respect, will you?’ ‘Respect?’ Harry repeated, but Hermione shot him a warning look; apparently he was not to argue with Ron while the latter was in such a weakened condition.”_ – Bless Ron and his paranoia. And of course the irony is that this is what will prevent them from Death Eaters finding their location, because Ron is somewhat right. Voldemort wants people to… well not respect, but to fear him, to the point where they are even afraid enough to say his name. Which fits to his strategy. He is not a public figure, not someone you can openly rebel against, but a shadow, a whisper. And of course he knows that the only people who had ever been brave enough to say his name are those in the Order, so on top of that it is a clever way to find them (and hopefully Harry).


  * _“Harry looked over at Hermione and the question he had been about to ask – about whether Mrs Cattermole’s lack of a wand would prevent her Apparating alongside her husband – died in his throat. Hermione was watching Ron fret over the fate of the Cattermoles, and there was such tenderness in her expression that Harry felt almost as if he had surprised her in the act of kissing him.”_ – Awwww. First of all Harry’s question, which is quite interesting. Do you need a wand, even if you are just apparating alongside? I mean technically you don’t need to use your wand to apparate. Could Muggles side-apparate? Can only wizards and witches apparate? So many questions. But let Hermione have her moment. Because this here is why she fell for Ron after all – because despite being rude and insensitive at times, deep down Ron is one of the good ones, someone who deeply and genuine cares about others, even strangers. This is who Hermione sees and this is who she fell in love with.


  * _“There were other Horcruxes out there somewhere, but he did not have the faintest idea where they could be. He did not even know what all of them were. Meanwhile, he was at a loss to know how to destroy the only one that they had found, the Horcrux that currently lay against the bare flesh of his chest.”_ – There are a lot of people who don’t like this part of the book, the trio hiding in the woods, with no idea what to do next. Personally I always liked it because I expected (or hoped) something like this to happen, for them to feel hopeless and just overwhelmed by the entire situation, because how could they not? Harry has some ideas what the other Horcruxes could be, thanks to Dumbledore, but no idea where to find them or how to destroy them. They found the locket by sheer luck and it is the same with the other Horcruxes, random chance. Dumbledore left them with a task way too big for them and it is a miracle that somehow everything worked out in the end.


  * _“Neither can live while the other survives. Ron and Hermione, now talking softly behind him in the tent, could walk away if they wanted to: he could not. And it seemed to Harry as he sat there trying to master his own fear and exhaustion, that the Horcrux against his chest was ticking away the time he had left … Stupid idea, he told himself, don’t think that …”_ – Harry has no choice in this war. It does not matter what he wants or what he feels, he can’t run away from this. And there is this overwhelming fear that this might be the end – that he is going to die – that he can’t even allow himself to think any further than his final confrontation with Voldemort, which will come, sooner or later. And just… he is 17. He has barely lived. And yet he feels like his time is running out, like he is heading towards the end and that allowing himself even little moments of happiness makes all of this even more unbearable.


  * Gregorovitch claims he did not know who the thief was that stole the Elder Wand from him (though we don’t know yet that this is what was stolen). Which is odd. The only thing so far that connects Gregorovitch with Grindelwald (the thief) so far is Krum. Krum bought his wand from Gregorovitch and went to Durmstrang, the same school as Grindelwald. Krum is from Bulgaria, Durmstrang is set somewhere in Eastern Europe, probably somewhere cold, as Hermione assumed based on their school robes. Gregorovitch is a Slavic name. We learned from Krum that Grindelwald committed crimes in Bulgaria, and probably other Slavic States. Therefore the people there would know about Grindelwald, would have seen a photo etc. Perhaps there were even rumours about him owning the Elder Wand. The only possible explanation is that Grindelwald was still very young when he stole the wand and Gregorovitch did not connect him with the man who would later commit so many crimes. I sincerely doubt that Gregorovitch had any reasons to lie to Voldemort in order to protect Grindelwald.


  * Also, it doesn’t make sense why Voldemort would kill Gregorovitch. He doesn’t have the information Voldemort needs, but he is still an acclaimed wandmaker and Voldemort still needs to figure out his wand problem. He thinks the solution to the problem is the Elder Wand, not even thinking that Gregorovitch and his knowledge could still be usefull, and kills him. And yet he keeps Ollivander alive.




	15. Chapter 15: The Goblin’s Revenge

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 15: The Goblin’s Revenge**

  * _“‘I couldn’t … make one,’ he panted, clutching the stitch in his side. ‘Wouldn’t … come.’ Their expressions of consternation and disappointment made Harry feel ashamed. It had been a nightmarish experience, seeing the Dementors gliding out of the mist in the distance and realising, as the paralysing cold choked his lungs and a distant screaming filled his ears, that he was not going to be able to protect himself. It had taken all Harry’s will power to uproot himself from the spot and run, leaving the eyeless Dementors to glide amongst the Muggles who might not be able to see them, but would assuredly feel the despair they cast wherever they went.”_ – Resisting the urge to make a joke about performance issues here, this is typical Harry behaviour – thinking he is weak, feeling ashamed about it. And what’s more, as we find out, there is an external reason why Harry was not able to produce a Patronus – he was still wearing the Horcrux. I would have liked it better if Harry simply failed, without any special reason, simply because we all fail sometimes. And if Harry had learned to accept that about himself instead of feeling ashamed about it. Also think about all the Muggles who feel hopeless and full of despair, without seemingly any reason. I wonder why the Dementors are in a Muggle town in the first place, and if someone controls them, because otherwise they would start attacking Muggles sooner or later (like they did with Dudley), and a bunch of soulless Muggles would attract some attention.


  * _“She held out her hands and Harry lifted the golden chain over his head. The moment it parted contact with Harry’s skin he felt free and oddly light. He had not even realised that he was clammy, or that there was a heavy weight pressing on his stomach, until both sensations lifted.”_ – So basically the Horcrux works like The One Ring? And I wrote about this before, but it is quite telling how the locket brings out the worst in everyone, except for Umbridge, who was strangely empowered by it, making her even more sinister than she already was.


  * _“‘It’s not stealing, is it?’ asked Hermione in a troubled voice, as they devoured scrambled eggs on toast. ‘Not if I left some money under the chicken coop?’”_ – This is such a Hermione thing to do. They are practically outlaws, on the run from the government, and yet she worries about stealing food. It is an integral part of Hermione not to break any rules – except of course if the rules are shitty.


  * _“This was their first encounter with the fact that a full stomach meant good spirits; an empty one, bickering and gloom. Harry was the least surprised by this, because he had suffered periods of near starvation at the Dursleys’.”_ – And yet Harry’s relationship to food is surprisingly healthy. He went from a place where he nearly starved to a place where he could get food all the time (at least after he found out where the school kitchen is). Perhaps this food security prevented him from binge eating or anything like it. We also know that whenever Harry feels anxious he can’t eat (he had stopped eating before every task at the Triwizard Tournament), so it is also possible that Harry doesn’t feel like eating much anyway.


  * _“‘I still reckon he might have hidden something at Hogwarts.’ Hermione sighed. ‘But Dumbledore would have found it, Harry!’ Harry repeated the argument he kept bringing out in favour of this theory. ‘Dumbledore said in front of me that he never assumed he knew all of Hogwarts’ secrets. I’m telling you, if there was one place Vol—’”_ – Harry of course is right in assuming that Voldemort left one Horcrux at Hogwarts, also bringing up the exact reason why: that Hogwarts had been Voldemort’s first and only home. I would also argue that Dumbledore knew about the room of requirements and knew how to use it, but the thing about the room is that it is impossible to find something there if you are explicitly looking for it. Harry was not able to find out what Draco did in the room the previous year, because the magic of the room prevented him. However he was still able to enter the Room of Hidden Things when he wanted to get rid of his potions book. So likewise Dumbledore would not have been able to find the room if he was looking for a Horcrux specifically. Harry realized his mistake when he had learned where Draco had hidden the Vanishing Cabinet (realizing it had been the same room), so the trick would be to ask to room for the same thing as so many students before: a hiding place. Voldemort thought his Horcrux was safe, not because he thought nobody else could enter the room (there was enough evidence other people had been there) but because he thought the magic of the room would prevent anyone from finding a Horcrux who would look for it specifically. But Harry had learned how he would still be able to find the room, something that Dumbledore might indeed never found out.


  * _“Dumbledore had shown Harry that Voldemort sought grandeur or mystique in his hiding places; this dismal, grey corner of London was as far removed as you could imagine from Hogwarts, or the Ministry or a building like Gringotts, the wizarding bank, with its golden doors and marble floors.”_ – And ironically at all those places the trio finds a Horcrux. Of course Voldemort neither hid a Horcrux in the Ministry or Gringotts, they got there through other circumstances (Umbridge wearing the Horcrux and working at the Ministry, Bellatrix hiding the Horcrux given to her at Gringotts). Still, while debating where the remaining Horcruxes could be they are more right than wrong, without realizing it.


  * _“And Ron would turn away, making no effort to hide his disappointment. Harry knew that Ron was hoping to hear news of his family, or of the rest of the Order of the Phoenix, but after all, he, Harry, was not a television aerial; he could only see what Voldemort was thinking at the time, not tune in to whatever took his fancy.”_ – The thing is though you don’t really want Voldemort to see or even think about your family. Not getting any news is in this case good news.


  * _“Harry could not help wondering whether they had only agreed to come on what now felt like a pointless and rambling journey because they thought he had some secret plan that they would learn in due course. Ron was making no effort to hide his bad mood, and Harry was starting to fear that Hermione, too, was disappointed by his poor leadership.”_ – I know that a lot of people don’t like this particular part of the book, with the three camping in the woods, without any real plan, but I always liked it, because it felt real. After I had finished the sixth book I had wondered what Harry would do next. Sure, finding and destroying Horcruxes, but with the little information he had been given, what was his exact plan? And this here, three teenagers, who are on their own, who don’t know what to do, who get more desperate every day, this feels very realistic to me. They find and destroy the Horcruxes by chance and through coincidences. They make mistakes. They fight, they almost break apart. They are just three teenagers with a task almost too heavy to carry, but somehow they made it.


  * _“‘Your mother can’t produce food out of thin air,’ said Hermione. ‘No one can. Food is the first of the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfigur—’ ‘Oh, speak English, can’t you?’ Ron said, prising a fishbone out from between his teeth.”_ – It’s funny that this is something Ron will remember and bring up later, when they are back at Hogwarts, because obviously he pays attention to everything Hermione says (despite claiming otherwise), you just do when you have a crush on someone. But it is also interesting for me to see the limitations of magic: you can’t cheat death, you can’t create real love, you can’t create food etc. Still you can duplicate food, so technically wizards could stop world hunger, just as they could probably cure lots of Muggle diseases. But they don’t, because of reasons.


  * _“‘Harry caught the fish and I did my best with it! I notice I’m always the one who ends up sorting out the food; because I’m a girl, I suppose!’ ‘No, it’s because you’re supposed to be the best at magic!’ shot back Ron.”_ – I love Hermione’s refusal to fulfil any kind of traditional role of womanhood. Obviously she wouldn’t know any sort of cooking spells, because she wouldn’t need them for her education, but it is the principal, that she feels it is somehow expected of her to know this simply because she is a girl/woman. And despite Ron claiming it is because Hermione is the most skilled witch, I think he adopted the traditional values of his family, with a mother who stayed at home, raising the children, and a father, who is the sole earner of the family. We already saw this with his overprotectiveness towards Ginny (thinking she needed his approval to date someone), who just as Hermione refuses to become like her mother. Eventually Ron will get used to it.


  * _“‘Muggle-born, eh?’ asked the first man. ‘Not sure,’ said Dean. ‘My dad left my mum when I was a kid. I’ve got no proof he was a wizard, though.’”_ – This is the first time we hear about Dean’s heritage. Assumingly as we learn about this now so does Harry (and Ron and Hermione). I wouldn’t put it past Harry that in six years together at school he had never asked Dean about his family. Dean however can’t be sure about his heritage and as he has no proof that his father was a wizard (and he would be therefore a halfblood), he didn’t take any risks and is now on the run. Did he travel to Hogwarts or did he flee before? I think the later; once at Hogwarts it would have been near impossible to escape. Which would mean he would be on the run for a couple of weeks by now, though he had only met Ted Tonks a few days ago. Was he all alone before? Did he travel with other people? I need answers.


  * I still don’t know why Ginny and the others decided to steal the sword of Gryffindor. We know that Snape had in fact the real sword, and that he later gave it to Harry so he could destroy the locket. But I’m missing out on the details.


  * _“Inside the tent, Harry closed his eyes, willing someone to ask the question he needed answered, and after a minute that seemed ten, Dean obliged; he was (Harry remembered with a jolt) an ex-boyfriend of Ginny’s too. ‘What happened to Ginny and the others? The ones who tried to steal it?’”_ – I still think it is weird that Harry thinks of himself as Ginny’s ex-boyfriend. Sure, they are not officially together anymore, but it’s more like they are on a break. Like everyone knows that once the war is over and they both survive they will continue their relationship.


  * _“‘Hard to know what to believe these days,’ muttered Dirk. ‘I know Harry Potter,’ said Dean. ‘And I reckon he’s the real thing – the Chosen One, or whatever you want to call it.’”_ – I think the conversation between Dirk Cresswell, Dean and Ted Tonks is a good example for how the Wizarding Community in general will react to Harry. Dean of course knows Harry the best – they went to school together, shared a dormitory etc. Ted knows Harry through his daughter and the Order; he has insider information the others don’t have. Dirk however does not know Harry personally or is involved in any kind of resistance. Everything he knows about Harry is probably what he has read in the newspapers, especially the Daily Prophet. And of course the Prophet’s coverage about Harry has changed dramatically over the years, depending on the respective political climate and regime. I don’t think it is fair to judge Dirk for his doubts about Harry or for believing the media. Media should be independent, we should be able to trust the news, because we see here the kind of power media has. There will be many others like Dirk, who maybe even like him are persona non grata in this new regime, who still have their doubts about Harry, wondering where he is and what he is doing.


  * _“‘It’s not so lunatic these days,’ said Ted. ‘You want to give it a look. Xeno is printing all the stuff the Prophet’s ignoring, not a single mention of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks in the last issue. How long they’ll let him get away with it, mind, I don’t know. But Xeno says, front page of every issue, that any wizard who’s against You-Know-Who ought to make helping Harry Potter their number one priority.’” –_ Perhaps the Ministry (and therefore Voldemort) believes that the Quibbler’s reputation is enough to prevent people reading the magazine and getting access to information the Prophet won’t publish. If they would stop Xeno Lovegood perhaps people would start wonder why, wonder if there might be some truth in what he is writing. By ignoring him they hope people will still think he is a joke, publishing speculative stories no one in their right mind would believe. I like the idea that some time after the war historians will archive everything and look at the role media played during the war, especially the Prophet, who by now has twice become an instrument of the government, and how resistance groups have formed and built a network, from the Order to the DA to Potterwatch and the Quibbler.


  * _“‘Yeah, well, you’ve got a point there,’ said Dirk heavily. ‘With the whole of the Ministry and all their informers looking for him, I’d have expected him to be caught by now. Mind, who’s to say they haven’t already caught and killed him without publicising it?’”_ – First of all if they had killed Harry they would have made a big deal about it, to demoralise the publicity and especially those who see Harry as a symbol of hope. Second, it just underlines how hard even for adult wizards it is to stay hidden, which yet shows how incredible gifted Hermione is (all those spells and precautions? Her idea).


  * _“‘And Snape might’ve thought that was a punishment,’ said Harry, ‘but Ginny, Neville and Luna probably had a good laugh with Hagrid. The Forbidden Forest … they’ve faced plenty worse than the Forbidden Forest, big deal!’”_ – Here is the thing though – Snape is not stupid. Yes, the Forbidden Forrest can be very dangerous, but compared to other punishments this is harmless. Snape knows Hagrid would never do anything to endanger the lives of Ginny, Neville and Luna. He obviously had to punish them, everything else would have been suspicious, but he chose a punishment that is almost harmless, which in itself is suspicious. Though Harry, with his blind hate for Snape, can’t see this.


  * Did Ginny and the others tried to steal the sword because they knew Dumbledore wanted Harry to have it? Did Harry tell Ginny about Dumbledore’s testament? Did they perhaps hope that by stealing the sword Snape would move it somewhere else, where it would be easier for Harry to get it? Did Snape arrange it that Ginny would wanted to steal the sword, giving himself an excuse why the sword would no longer be in the office? Is the entire story made up, to justify why Snape removed the sword? (And Phineas Nigellus knew about it and therefore continued telling that lie?) I really can’t remember and it is bugging me.


  * _“‘I get it. You choose him.’ ‘Ron, no – please – come back, come back!’ She was impeded by her own Shield Charm; by the time she had removed it, he had already stormed into the night. Harry stood quite still and silent, listening to her sobbing and calling Ron’s name amongst the trees.”_ – This of course hits exactly where it hurts Ron the most. He had always been jealous of Harry, always felt insecure, and his biggest fear is that the girl he loves would choose Harry over him. Which is exactly what Hermione is doing right now, though for other reasons than what Ron might suspect. She stays with Harry because she made a promise, because right now Harry needs her more. It breaks Hermione’s heart to let Ron go, but she has no other choice.




	16. Chapter 16: Godric’s Hollow

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 16: Godric’s Hollow**

  * _“They did not discuss Ron at all over the next few days. Harry was determined never to mention his name again, and Hermione seemed to know that it was no use forcing the issue, although sometimes at night when she thought he was sleeping, he would hear her crying.”_ – You know things are really at the worst when you can’t even say the name of the other person anymore (been there, done that). I always felt that Ron leaving them was the lowest point, emotionally. And yet, somehow it was necessary. For Ron to grow up, to become more mature, but also for his relationship with Harry. Because while this is not their first fight (and probably not their last one either), this might be their worst. At the time when Harry needed him the most Ron left. And they always had this very easy going friendship, where they hardly ever talked about their feelings. They had their fights, but when they made up they did not talk about it, which isn’t very healthy. Hermione is different in that way, because she always wants to discuss feelings, despite the fact how uncomfortable it makes Harry, often forcing Harry to talk. Now however she is too hurt herself, perhaps knowing that nothing she could say would make anything better. But I think in the end, despite everything, this big fight helped Harry and Ron to even become better friends than before, being at a point where they are able to talk about how they feel.


  * _“However, Ron did not appear on the map, and after a while Harry found himself taking it out simply to stare at Ginny’s name in the girls’ dormitory, wondering whether the intensity with which he gazed at it might break into her sleep, that she would somehow know he was thinking about her, hoping that she was all right.”_ – This feels like the wizarding version of stalking someone’s social media, before you know social media was a thing. Which makes it easier to connect with people but also harder to let go. And whereas Harry has through the map the opportunity to check on Ginny, Ginny on the other hand does not have this kind of luxury. She has no idea where her (ex)boyfriend, her brother and one of her best friends are, hoping for the best, dreading the worst.


  * _“She looked from Harry to the weird symbol and back again. ‘I’ve never heard that Grindelwald had a mark. There’s no mention of it in anything I’ve ever read about him.’”_ – Grindelwald, as it seems, isn’t really part of the British Wizarding History it seems. Sure, Hermione has read about him, and it is known that Dumbledore defeated him, but he was never active in Britain (due to Dumbledore), so people there might be unaware/ignorant to his crimes. This would explain why Xeno Lovegood wore the symbol: he simply did not know it was Grindelwald’s mark.


  * _“‘Yeah, it is weird,’ said Harry. ‘And you’d think Scrimgeour would have recognised it. He was Minister, he ought to have been expert on Dark stuff.’”_ – Which really shows how ignorant the Ministry is regarding other country’s histories. As a Minister for Magic he should have been educated about this. Instead it really paints a picture that every nation is doing their own thing, which would also explain why we see no interference from other countries in this war, who by now should be suspicious about the drastic changes happening in Britain.


  * _“Harry did not want to admit that he had not been thinking about the sword at all when he suggested they go to Godric’s Hollow. For him, the lure of the village lay in his parents’ graves, the house where he had narrowly escaped death, and in the person of Bathilda Bagshot.”_ – Harry’s need to visit Godric’s Hollow is clearly emotional. He needs closure, he needs to see the place where all of this started for him in order to finish it. Hermione’s reasoning to visit Godric’s Hollow is based on logic – she suspects it is the place where Dumbledore might have hidden the sword – but perhaps she knows Harry needs this journey emotional as well.


  * _“Was it likely that Dumbledore would have hidden the sword of Gryffindor with her? If so, Harry felt that Dumbledore had left a great deal to chance: Dumbledore had never revealed that he had replaced the sword with a fake, nor had he so much as mentioned a friendship with Bathilda.”_ – That is the problem here: they only found out by coincidence that the real sword is missing, so they were never meant to search for it in the first place. Perhaps Dumbledore wanted to tell Harry about it, but they can only speculate about it. And in the end however they don’t find the sword, it is brought to them.


  * _“He was about to go home, about to return to the place where he had had a family. It was in Godric’s Hollow that, but for Voldemort, he would have grown up and spent every school holiday. He could have invited friends to his house … he might even have had brothers and sisters … it would have been his mother who had made his seventeenth birthday cake. The life he had lost had hardly ever seemed so real to him as at this moment when he knew he was about to see the place where it had been taken from him.”_ – Harry’s mourning and loss is always centered around a big “What if…”. A life full of possibilities, taken from him before he was even old enough to understand what was happening to him. He had never the chance to get to know his parents, always keft wondering how his life would have looked like. And Harry needs to go to Godric’s Hollow, needs to see the place where his parents lived, in order to let go, in order to move on.


  * _“Harry felt a thrill of something that was beyond excitement, more like fear. Now that he was so near, he wondered whether he wanted to see, after all. Perhaps Hermione knew how he was feeling, because she reached for his hand and took the lead for the first time, pulling him forwards.”_ – Harry has known (almost) his entire life that his parents are dead, but seeing their gravestone, their old house etc, makes it real in a way it has not been before. But he has to confront that in order to move on.


  * _“There was a kissing gate at the entrance to the graveyard. Hermione pushed it open as quietly as possible and they edged through it.”_ – Ok, I just educated myself what the hell a kissing gate is, because this seems to be a British thing, as I don’t remember ever going through one.


  * _“Seeing the grave was worse than hearing about it. Harry could not help thinking that he and Dumbledore both had deep roots in this graveyard, and that Dumbledore ought to have told him so; yet he had never thought to share the connection. They could have visited the place together; for a moment Harry imagined coming here with Dumbledore, of what a bond that would have been, of how much it would have meant to him. But it seemed that to Dumbledore, the fact that their families lay side by side in the same graveyard had been an unimportant coincidence, irrelevant, perhaps, to the job he wanted Harry to do.”_ – Obviously Harry does not wonder why Dumbledore did not tell him about this connection, why he kept his distance, that perhaps this is a very painful memory for Dumbledore, and that Harry would have asked questions Dumbledore was not ready to answer, as he felt responsible for his sister’s death. This is not about Harry, or Dumbledore’s relationship to Harry. Dumbledore had a right to keep things to himself just as anyone else.


  * It isn’t until we see the gravestone that we realize how incredible young Lily and James were when they died – only 21. Perhaps it was due to the First Wizarding War that they decided to marry so young and get a child (though we don’t know if Harry was planned), perhaps they were forced to grow up faster than others their age. And yet I can’t help but think that with 21 they were still children themselves, too young to carry the burden put upon them, just as Harry is now too young to carry the same burden.


  * _“But they were not living, thought Harry: they were gone. The empty words could not disguise the fact that his parents’ mouldering remains lay beneath snow and stone, indifferent, unknowing. And tears came before he could stop them, boiling hot then instantly freezing on his face, and what was the point in wiping them off, or pretending? He let them fall, his lips pressed hard together, looking down at the thick snow hiding from his eyes the place where the last of Lily and James lay, bones now, surely, or dust, not knowing or caring that their living son stood so near, his heart still beating, alive because of their sacrifice and close to wishing, at this moment, that he was sleeping under the snow with them.”_ – I think this is one of the most moving, tragically beautiful scenes in the entire series. Everyone mourns different, and Harry of course never had the chance before to visit his parent’s grave. I’m not sure we will regularly visit it, once the war is over. Because what lies beneath the snow, deep down in the earth, are just bones, just bodies, nothing more. I do not visit the graveyard for the very same reason; when I see my mother’s grave it is just this, just bones, that has little to do with the person I knew and that I lost. Again, Harry needed this to get closure, but it doesn’t make him feel any better. There is no real connection. He will get his chance to say goodbye later, when he is in the Forbidden Forrest again.




	17. Chapter 17: Bathilda’s secret

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 17: Bathilda’s secret**

  * _“‘We look like Muggles,’ Harry pointed out. ‘Muggles who’ve just been laying flowers on your parents’ grave! Harry, I’m sure there’s someone over there!’”_ – Hermione is (as always) right. That is what gives them away. No matter how good at hiding and disguising themselves they are, Voldemort knew that if Harry would visit Godric’s Hollow he would use the chance to visit his parent’s grave and their old house. To Voldemort love is a weakness, and his uses Harry’s weakness against him.


  * _“He could see it; the Fidelius Charm must have died with James and Lily.”_ – So, does a Fidelius charm ‘die’ when whatever it is supposed to remain a secret no longer exists? We know that the secret keeper, Wormtail, still lives, and that he only told one person, Voldemort, about the secret. But the secret itself, the location of the Potters, is no longer relevant since the Potters died (though Harry of course is still alive). So a Fidelis Charm can be lifted when the secret keeper reveals the secret and it can ‘die’ when there is no more secret to keep.


  * _“‘I wonder why nobody’s ever rebuilt it?’ whispered Hermione. ‘Maybe you can’t rebuild it?’ Harry replied. ‘Maybe it’s like the injuries from Dark Magic and you can’t repair the damage?’”_ – Harry might be right, that it is simply impossible to rebuild something that has been destroyed by such powerful magic as the Killing Curse. However I also think that no one ever rebuild it out of respect for Lily and James and as a memorial for future generations. There is always something quite strange about how Harry’s family history is also public knowledge. Everyone knows (more or less) the details of how his parents died, how Harry survived, people visited their old house etc. This is something so private and traumatic, and yet Harry has to share this knowledge with everyone in the Wizarding World, and he has no say in the matter.


  * _“And all round these neatly lettered words scribbles had been added by other witches and wizards who had come to see the place where the Boy Who Lived had escaped. Some had merely signed their names in Everlasting Ink; others had carved their initials into the wood, still others had left messages. The most recent of these, shining brightly over sixteen years’ worth of magical graffiti, all said similar things. ‘Good luck, Harry, wherever you are.’ ‘If you read this, Harry, we’re all behind you!’ ‘Long live Harry Potter.’ ‘They shouldn’t have written on the sign!’ said Hermione, indignant. But Harry beamed at her. ‘It’s brilliant. I’m glad they did. I …’”_ – And this is yet another thing, how many people have visited the house over the years, yet it took Harry 6 years to get there. He never showed any interest before to visit Godric’s Hollow, it is only now where he knows he might die soon, to visit the place where his journey started, before it might end. And it is also quite interesting how different Hermione and Harry react to the writings on the sign. Hermione think it is disrespectful (the same way she didn’t approve that someone wrote in Harry’s potion’s book), Harry however seeks courage from the messages, like little lights in the dark.


  * _“By all the rules of normal magic, meanwhile, she ought not to be able to see Hermione and him at all. Nevertheless, Harry had the strangest feeling that she knew that they were there, and also who they were.”_ – We know that by now technically Bathilda is Nagini. Does the invisibility cloak work on animals as well? (Or rather a Maledictus?) Did Voldemort give her powers to see through such a cloak? Or does one Horcrux simply recognize the presence of another? (Or two in this case?)


  * _“She nodded again. Harry became aware of the locket against his skin; the thing inside it that sometimes ticked or beat had woken; he could feel it pulsing through the cold gold. Did it know, could it sense, that the thing that would destroy it was near?”_ – Perhaps not only do the Horcruxes recognize the presence of another locket, but they long to be reunited? We know that is an act against the human nature to tear apart a soul, so maybe when in close presence to each other the individual parts of the soul want to become one again?


  * _“‘Come!’ called Bathilda from the next room. Hermione jumped and clutched Harry’s arm. ‘It’s OK,’ said Harry reassuringly, and he led the way into the sitting room.”_ – We know of course that what Harry hears is Parseltongue, so all Hermione heard in this moment was a hiss (hence her reaction). What is so interesting to me is that Harry is always unaware that he listens to Parseltongue unless somebody points it out to him. He heard the Basilisk in book 2, he was able to understand the Gaunts in the memories Dumbledore has shown him etc. But it isn’t until somebody else tells him that what he hears is Parseltongue that he realizes that. So to Harry obviously Parseltongue must sound like English, not like a foreign langue he is able to understand. Which is quite fascinating.


  * _“Bathilda was tottering around the place lighting candles, but it was still very dark, not to mention extremely dirty. Thick dust crunched beneath their feet and Harry’s nose detected, underneath the dank and mildewed smell, something worse, like meat gone bad.”_ – By now Bathilda must have been dead for weeks, maybe even months, so the smell Harry recognizes is coming from her dead body, as she has obviously started to decay, though perhaps a bit slower than a normal body. This is never mentioned, but something that becomes quite obvious while re-reading the chapter.


  * _“And in the instant that he looked away, his eyes raking the tangled mess for a sword hilt, a ruby, she moved weirdly: he saw it out of the corner of his eye; panic made him turn and horror paralysed him as he saw the old body collapsing and the great snake pouring from the place where her neck had been.”_ – Rowling had always used horror elements in her books, but without a doubt this moment/scene is the most terrifying to me. The dark house, the smell of rotten flesh, the (unknown to us) dead Bathilda who transforms into a snake, and the horrible, horrible knowledge that Voldemort will be there any moment.


  * This chapter marks the only time we see events (or rather the memory of the night James and Lily died) from Voldemort’s perspective. And I admit I found it rather odd reading them, because through them Voldemort became less abstract, less of a monster in a way. Not sympathetic, or that we could understand why he did it, but rather… mundane.


  * Something else we learn and that I found rather interesting, considering how important wands and wand lore become this book: neither James or Lily had their wand when they died. They both died completely defenceless. And yet Lily had a magic of her own that did protect her son, through the sacrifice she made for him. And at the end of this chapter it is said son, Harry, who will lose his wand.




	18. Chapter 18: The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 18: The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore**

  * _“He had spilled his own blood more times than he could count; he had lost all the bones in his right arm once; this journey had already given him scars to his chest and forearm to join those on his hand and forehead, but never, until this moment, had he felt himself to be fatally weakened, vulnerable and naked, as though the best part of his magical power had been torn from him. He knew exactly what Hermione would say if he expressed any of this: the wand is only as good as the wizard. But she was wrong, his case was different. She had not felt the wand spin like the needle of a compass and shoot golden flames at his enemy. He had lost the protection of the twin cores, and only now that it was gone did he realise how much he had been counting upon it.”_ – I don’t think we ever realized what an integral part of a wizard/witch’s identity a wand is until now that Harry lost his own wand. And this might be the lowest point of Harry’s journey: he lost his best friend, is almost completely isolated from the Wizarding World, he has no idea where to find the remaining Horcruxes or destroy the one they have, and now he lost his wand, his special weapon so to say. Harry is at his breaking point, and during this chapter he will lose whatever remaining trust he had in Dumbledore as well. But you know, it is always darkest before the dawn. Things can only get better from now on.


  * _“He pulled the pieces of the broken wand out of his pocket and, without looking at them, tucked them away in Hagrid’s pouch around his neck. The pouch was now too full of broken and useless objects to take any more.” –_ In a way Harry himself feels broken and useless. But it is quite symbolic that Harry has all these broken, seemingly worthless objects, that he never got his own wand back (with his special powers thanks to the twin cores), and he still defeated Voldemort, who always had a special interest in magical objects with a rich history, who spends all this time looking for a super powerful wand (the Elder Wand). The odds are never in Harry’s favour, by all means Voldemort is much more powerful, but this fight was never about power, and it was Voldemort’s biggest mistake in believing it was.


  * _“Dumbledore had left them to grope in the darkness, to wrestle with unknown and undreamed of terrors alone and unaided: nothing was explained, nothing was given freely, they had no sword, and now, Harry had no wand.”_ – This is pretty much what adulthood feels like – nothing is explained and nothing is given freely. And of course soon enough they get help with the sword given to them. But apart from that they are pretty much of their own, they have to help themselves and have to figure out everything on their own. And I know I am repeating myself, but I always liked this. Just three teenagers, on their own, with no plan, and yet they somehow made it out alive.


  * _“Harry looked down upon Dumbledore’s face and experienced a surge of savage pleasure: now he would know all the things that Dumbledore had never thought it worth telling him, whether Dumbledore wanted him to, or not.”_ – If Harry wasn’t as angry as he is, he would have never read the book in the first place, respecting Dumbledore’s privacy, and that there was a reason why Dumbledore kept his personal life private. That is the price of fame, that Harry has experienced as well, that people think they have a right to know every little piece of your life, that you somehow owe it to them, even if, like Harry, you never choose that life for you. It is a sign how deeply broken his trust in Dumbledore is that Harry reads Rita’s book, that he wants access to information about Dumbledore’s life, ignoring Dumbledore’s wishes for privacy.


  * _“Now approaching his eighteenth birthday, Dumbledore left Hogwarts in a blaze of glory – Head Boy, Prefect, Winner of the Barnabus Finkley Prize for Exceptional Spell-Casting, British Youth Representative to the Wizengamot, Gold Medal-Winner for Ground-Breaking Contribution to the International Alchemical Conference in Cairo.”_ – We never heard of these titles before (except head boy and prefect), but I’m sure that once Hermione has repeated her final year at Hogwarts she has a collection of fancy titles as well.


  * _“Unfortunately, the brilliance that Bathilda exhibited earlier in her life has now dimmed. ‘The fire’s lit, but the cauldron’s empty,’ as Ivor Dillonsby put it to me, or, in Enid Smeek’s slightly earthier phrase, ‘She’s nutty as squirrel poo.’ Nevertheless, a combination of tried and tested reporting techniques enabled me to extract enough nuggets of hard fact to string together the whole scandalous story.”_ – It is implied several times that Rita Skeeter used force to get Bathilda’s memories, obviously without her consent, to the point where she even mentions this in her book and yet there seems to be no outrage about her behaviour at all. Surely it is not legal to get access to memories like this, there must be some laws protecting wizards (and Muggles alike) from invading one’s privacy like that?


  * _“On one subject, however, Bathilda is well worth the effort I put into procuring Veritaserum, for she, and she alone, knows the full story of the best-kept secret of Albus Dumbledore’s life.”_ – I also vaguely remember that using Veritaserum is only allowed under very strict conditions, mostly to interrogate criminals, not to get information from elderly vulnerable women. Did anyone denounce Rita after reading this book?


  * _“Neither Dumbledore nor Grindelwald ever seems to have referred to this brief boyhood friendship in later life. However, there can be no doubt that Dumbledore delayed, for some five years of turmoil, fatalities and disappearances, his attack upon Gellert Grindelwald. Was it lingering affection for the man, or fear of exposure as his once best friend, that caused Dumbledore to hesitate? Was it only reluctantly that Dumbledore set out to capture the man he was once so delighted he had met?”_ – And this might be the closet we get to LGBT-representation in seven books. The suggestion between the lines that there might have been more than just friendship between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, and that this might be the actual reason why Dumbledore never spoke about his brief (but intense) relationship with Gellert Grindelwald. Out of shame, blind because he was in love, unable to see Grindelwald for who he really is until it was too late (and Ariana was dead). It is never outspoken, but obviously this interpretation makes much more sense that Dumbledore just being friends with Grindelwald. And yes, obviously Rowling confirmed this later, but the fact remains that within the actual text of the books Dumbledore is never confirmed as a queer character. Too little, too late.


  * _“‘I thought you’d say that,’ said Harry. He did not want to let his anger spill out at her, but it was hard to keep his voice steady. ‘I thought you’d say “they were young”. They were the same age as we are now. And here we are, risking our lives to fight the Dark Arts, and there he was, in a huddle with his new best friend, plotting their rise to power over the Muggles.’”_ – Age is never an excuse for Harry. Not when he found out his father was a bully at school, not when it comes to the mistakes Snape or Draco committed, or now Dumbledore. People are allowed to misbehave while they are young and Harry has not been perfect either – I spent much of my chapter notes of book 5 explaining that Harry is still a teenager, to justify how shitty he treated his friends. And yet Harry has never been cruel and he always had a moral compass he followed, even at a young age. But Harry, unlike others, had also always been forced to make hard choices at a very young age. He lost his parents during the First Wizarding War and the second war started when he was 14. He had to live through extreme situations, had to watch people die for him, had to survive somehow. Harry was forced to choose a side, to take a stand, when he was only 11 years old. I get where he is coming from – he made the right choices, he sacrificed so much, despite his young age. But he forgets that not everyone lived the same life as he did. Our experiences make us who we are, and Harry has gone through a lot.


  * _“‘He changed, Harry, he changed! It’s as simple as that! Maybe he did believe these things when he was seventeen, but the whole of the rest of his life was devoted to fighting the Dark Arts! Dumbledore was the one who stopped Grindelwald, the one who always voted for Muggle protection and Muggle-born rights, who fought You-Know-Who from the start and who died trying to bring him down!’”_ – This is also a reminder that people are allowed to make mistakes. People can mess up, but they can also change and make up for their past mistakes. They are allowed a second chance. Harry (and the entire Wizarding World) should not judge Dumbledore for the things he did as a teenager, but for his life’s work. This should always count more. You are not your past, you are allowed to change and to be judged for the person you are today.


  * _“‘He loved you,’ Hermione whispered. ‘I know he loved you.’ Harry dropped his arms. ‘I don’t know who he loved, Hermione, but it was never me. This isn’t love, the mess he’s left me in. He shared a damn sight more of what he was really thinking with Gellert Grindelwald than he ever shared with me.’”_ – Hermione of course only knows Dumbledore through Harry, through everything Harry has told her about Dumbledore, so her saying Dumbledore loved Harry is just based on that. She knows that Dumbledore deeply cared about Harry, that everything he did was to protect him, even if Harry can’t see this. Dumbledore not sharing his personal life with Harry is no sign that he did not care, but it is more than just that. It is the feeling that Dumbledore left Harry alone with a burden too heavy to carry on his own. But while Dumbledore was aware that he had not much time left (given the curse from the ring), I think his death was not planed in the way that it happened. He would have given Harry more help if he had more time. But still the question remains – did Dumbledore love Harry? I think he did, despite knowing how much harder it would make everything for him (knowing that Harry has to sacrifice himself at some point). The question is how do we define love? And to Harry the fact that Dumbledore wasn’t honest, that he kept secrets, is a sign that he wasn’t loved. But people love, and show their love, in different ways.




	19. Chapter 19: The Silver Doe

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 19: The Silver Doe**

  * _“Harry moved an old cushion into the tent mouth and sat down, wearing all the sweaters he owned but, even so, still shivery.”_ – This is how I make it through every winter – wearing all of my clothes at once, still cold.


  * _“Harry stared at the creature, filled with wonder, not at her strangeness, but at her inexplicable familiarity. He felt that he had been waiting for her to come, but that he had forgotten, until this moment, that they had arranged to meet. His impulse to shout for Hermione, which had been so strong a moment ago, had gone. He knew, he would have staked his life on it, that she had come for him, and him alone. […]For one trembling second he hesitated. Caution murmured: it could be a trick, a lure, a trap. But instinct, overwhelming instinct, told him that this was not Dark Magic. He set off in pursuit.”_ – If Hermione would have been in Harry’s place she would have based her decision on cold logic and facts, and probably wouldn’t have left the tent, thinking it would be too risky. But Harry has always based his choices on instinct, on his gut feeling, whether someone is trustworthy or not. Harry has always been good at magic that requires a certain emotional element – like the Patronus Charm. And this a branch of magic where Hermione isn’t as talented as Harry. Harry has an emotional understanding of magic. He sees the Doe Patronus and immediately trusts it, without having any facts why he should do it. He just knows it is there to help.


  * So, we know that it was Snape who had the sword of Gryffindor and who had arranged everything in order for Harry to get the sword, and obviously he could not show himself… but why on earth did he have to hide the sword in a frozen lake of all places? Perhaps he thought it would have been too suspicious if Harry simply found the sword like that, that there had to be some sort of quest, but obviously Harry nearly died while trying to receive the sword. And Snape couldn’t have known that Ron was there, so would he have rescued Harry, with the risk of exposing himself?


  * _“Only a true Gryffindor could have pulled that out of the Hat. And what were the qualities that defined a Gryffindor? A small voice inside Harry’s head answered him: their daring, nerve and chivalry set Gryffindors apart. Harry stopped walking and let out a long sigh, his smoky breath dispersing rapidly upon the frozen air. He knew what he had to do. If he was honest with himself, he had thought it might come to this from the moment he had spotted the sword through the ice. […]With fumbling fingers Harry started to remove his many layers of clothing. Where ‘chivalry’ entered into this, he thought ruefully, he was not entirely sure, unless it counted as chivalrous that he was not calling for Hermione to do it in his stead.”_ – Is this the reason Snape put the sword in the ice? So that it only could be retrieved through an act of chivalry? Somehow I can’t help picturing Snape standing there in the woods, watching and cackling as Harry undresses himself to jump in the icy water.


  * _“Harry kicked out wildly, trying to push himself back to the surface, but merely propelled himself into the rocky side of the pool. Thrashing, suffocating, he scrabbled at the strangling chain, his frozen fingers unable to loosen it, and now little lights were popping inside his head, and he was going to drown, there was nothing left, nothing he could do, and the arms that closed around his chest were surely Death’s …”_ – Maybe, just maybe, it would have been wiser to take someone with you, just in case, to help you out if anything dangerous happens. Just an idea.


  * _“Harry could not answer. The silver doe was nothing, nothing compared with Ron’s reappearance, he could not believe it. Shuddering with cold, he caught up the pile of clothes still lying at the water’s edge and began to pull them on. As he dragged sweater after sweater over his head, Harry stared at Ron, half expecting him to have disappeared every time he lost sight of him, and yet he had to be real: he had just dived into the pool, he had saved Harry’s life.”_ – So much happens in that night – they know someone helped them, they get the sword, they destroy a Horcrux etc. But the most important thing is yet Ron’s return. Nothing weighed as much on Harry as when Ron left, not their near death experience, not the loss of his wand, and nothing compares to the feeling of Ron being back, saving Harry’s life, being there when he needed him the most, in every way.


  * _“‘My Patronus is a stag.’ ‘Oh yeah. I thought it looked different. No antlers.’”_ – Isn’t it weird that the Patronus who helped them almost looked like Harry’s (and therefore James’s) Patronus? They try to figure out who helped them, but somehow they don’t make the connection it could be someone related to Harry’s parents. I mean obviously even if they did they would not have guessed it was Snape, because somehow nobody ever mentioned to Harry that Snape and his mother used to be friends.


  * _“He was not being kind or generous. As certainly as he had known that the doe was benign, he knew that Ron had to be the one to wield the sword. Dumbledore had at least taught Harry something about certain kinds of magic, of the incalculable power of certain acts.”_ – Not only was it Ron who got out the sword from the lake (as a true Gryffindor), Ron was also the one who was affected by the locket the most. It is very symbolic that Ron destroys his own inner demons. And I also like that the destruction of the Horcruxes is a group effort, that it is not just a single person. Harry destroys the diary, Dumbledore the ring, Ron the locket, Hermione the cup. The diadem is team work again, Nagini is killed by Neville, and Harry ultimately sacrifices himself.


  * Also a magical sword that you get out of a lake is an obvious take on the Arthurian legend. Which I realized just now.


  * _“‘Because that thing’s bad for me!’ said Ron, backing away from the locket on the rock. ‘I can’t handle it! I’m not making excuses, Harry, for what I was like, but it affects me worse than it affected you and Hermione, it made me think stuff, stuff I was thinking anyway, but it made everything worse, I can’t explain it, and then I’d take it off and I’d get my head on straight again, and then I’d have to put the effing thing back on – I can’t do it, Harry!’”_ – This is pretty much how depression works – all of your worst thoughts, amplified, until you are trapped in them.


  * _“‘You can do it,’ said Harry, ‘you can! You’ve just got the sword, I know it’s supposed to be you who uses it. Please, just get rid of it, Ron.’ The sound of his name seemed to act like a stimulant. Ron swallowed, then, still breathing hard through his long nose, moved back towards the rock.”_ – We later learn that it was only because Hermione had used Ron’s name that he was able to find them again – names have power, and the fact that neither Harry nor Hermione had used Ron’s name showed how deeply hurt they were. And now it is a sign of healing.


  * _“‘Least loved, always, by the mother who craved a daughter … least loved, now, by the girl who prefers your friend … second best, always, eternally overshadowed …’”_ – The fate of a sidekick. Seriously though this is how Ron was introduced – as the sixth of seven children, with five older brothers to overshadow him, always comparing himself, always thinking he is not good enough, and having a best friend who is no other than The Chosen One. And I think this why so many people can identify themselves with Ron – he isn’t special in the way Hermione (brightest witch of her age) or Harry is (the hero). He has doubts, he is insecure. We all fear the same thing – that we are not good enough, that no one will ever truly love us. But Ron never needed to be special in order for Harry or Hermione to love him – he is enough, he has always been. And Ron needed to face this fear, Ron needed to mess up, in order to grow, to become the best version of himself.


  * _“‘Presumption!’ echoed the Riddle-Hermione, who was more beautiful and yet more terrible than the real Hermione: she swayed, cackling, before Ron, who looked horrified yet transfixed, the sword hanging pointlessly at his side.”_ – The ‘more beautiful’ line always got me, because I think this is how Ron sees Hermione. And obviously Harry does not think Hermione is unattractive – but he has zero romantic interest in her. But to Ron she is the most beautiful person in the world.


  * _“‘Who wouldn’t prefer him, what woman would take you? You are nothing, nothing, nothing to him,’ crooned Riddle-Hermione, and she stretched like a snake and entwined herself around Riddle-Harry, wrapping him in a close embrace: their lips met.”_ – And this is the only canon kiss harry/Hermione shippers will ever get. I never shipped them myself (though I can see the appeal), but I also thought that if they were meant to be it would have happened in the past weeks, during Ron’s absence. And obviously this had been one of Ron’s worst fears, that they were better off without him, that with Ron gone Hermione would choose Harry over him.


  * _“Slowly, Harry walked back to him, hardly knowing what to say or do. Ron was breathing heavily. His eyes were no longer red at all, but their normal blue; they were also wet. […]The sword clanged as Ron dropped it. He had sunk to his knees, his head in his arms. He was shaking, but not, Harry realised, from cold. Harry crammed the broken locket into his pocket, knelt down beside Ron and placed a hand, cautiously, on his shoulder. He took it as a good sign that Ron did not throw it off.”_ – I think this is the only time we saw Ron cry. And there again is that weird thing where Harry doesn’t know how to comfort someone, because he never learned how. And well, they are bros. Bros don’t hug or something like that.


  * _“‘That makes me sound a lot cooler than I was,’ Ron mumbled. ‘Stuff like that always sounds cooler than it really was,’ said Harry. ‘I’ve been trying to tell you that for years.’ Simultaneously they walked forwards and hugged, Harry gripping the still sopping back of Ron’s jacket.”_ – Ok, I take it back, they do hug. Also Ron is the hero for once and realises it isn’t as cool as it looks like.


  * _“Hermione slid out of her bunk and moved like a sleepwalker towards Ron, her eyes upon his pale face. She stopped right in front of him, her lips slightly parted, her eyes wide. Ron gave a weak, hopeful smile and half raised his arms. Hermione launched herself forwards and started punching every inch of him that she could reach.”_ – It is what he deserves.


  * _“‘Yeah,’ said Ron. ‘Could’ve been worse. Remember those birds she set on me?’ ‘I still haven’t ruled it out,’ came Hermione’s muffled voice from beneath her blankets, but Harry saw Ron smiling slightly as he pulled his maroon pyjamas out of his rucksack.”_ \- Ron’s maroon pyjamas always make me nostalgic. (I’m not sure he owns a another pair)




	20. Chapter 20: Xenophilius Lovegood

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 20: Xenophilius Lovegood**

  * _“‘Exactly! You’ve got to give them credit, it makes sense. It was only people who were serious about standing up to him, like Dumbledore, who ever dared use it. Now they’ve put a Taboo on it, anyone who says it is trackable – quick and easy way to find Order members! They nearly got Kingsley –’”_ \- Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself. Here we are again. It turns Voldemort in some sort of abstract thing, a monster, and makes him less human than he already is. Of course most people are already so scared about Voldemort that they don’t use his name in the first place. And it is just as Ron explains – those few who use his name are usually people who actively resist him and fight against him, like the Order.


  * _“Ron looked a little embarrassed, but said in a low voice, ‘Dumbledore … the doe? I mean,’ Ron was watching Harry out of the corners of his eyes, ‘he had the real sword last, didn’t he?’ Harry did not laugh at Ron, because he understood too well the longing behind the question. The idea that Dumbledore had managed to come back to them, that he was watching over them, would have been inexpressibly comforting. He shook his head.”_ – Ron’s question is almost childish, innocent. He wishes that their great saviour is still around, still protecting them, still helping them. But if there is one thing I like about the Potter series is that despite magic, the dead stay dead. Sure there are some ways to bring the dead back (ghosts, portraits, through the resurrection stone), but those are more or less imprints of the person who once was, nothing more. You can’t trick death, no matter how hard you try. Your loss is for real, and so is your grief. And if anyone would have found a way to beat death it would have been Dumbledore – but he knew more than anyone else that everything comes to an end.


  * _“‘I dunno,’ said Ron. ‘Sometimes I’ve thought, when I’ve been a bit hacked off, he was having a laugh or – or he just wanted to make it more difficult. But I don’t think so, not any more. He knew what he was doing when he gave me the Deluminator, didn’t he? He – well,’ Ron’s ears turned bright red and he became engrossed in a tuft of grass at his feet, which he prodded with his toe, ‘he must’ve known I’d run out on you.’ ‘No,’ Harry corrected him. ‘He must’ve known you’d always want to come back.’”_ – I love that last line and it beautifully sums up Ron and Harry’s friendship. They always find their way back to each other. And it really made me wonder how the Deluminator works – does it lead you where you need to be? Does it give you what you want the most? And there might be some truth in Ron’s words – Dumbledore perhaps knew Ron well enough to know that Ron was the least mature of them, the one who would be affected the most by negative thoughts. The one who eventually would need a guide to find his way back.


  * _“He knew why she wanted it to be all right: she still felt guilty about breaking his wand. He bit back the retort that sprang to his lips: that she could take the blackthorn wand if she thought it made no difference, and he would have hers instead.”_ – This implies that Hermione’s wand worked better for Harry than this new wand from a stranger does. Of course they are made from different materials and all that, but the main difference seems to be the connection Harry has to the owner. Hermione’s wand might not be his own, but Hermione is Harry’s friend, she is like family to him. Later on he chooses Draco’s wand and feels most comfortable with it. Draco of course is not Harry’s friend, but someone he knows, and that (on a very low level) he can sympathise with.


  * _“‘I wasn’t at The Burrow!’ said Ron, with an incredulous laugh. ‘Do you think I was going to go back there and tell them all I’d walked out on you? Yeah, Fred and George would’ve been great about it. And Ginny, she’d have been really understanding.’ ‘But where have you been, then?’ asked Hermione, surprised. ‘Bill and Fleur’s new place. Shell Cottage. Bill’s always been decent to me. He – he wasn’t impressed when he heard what I’d done, but he didn’t go on about it. He knew I was really sorry. None of the rest of the family know I was there. […]”_ – This says quite a lot about Ron’s relationship with his family. He feels ashamed about what he had done, knowing that his family risks their lives every day in supporting Harry. He doesn’t think that maybe they would understand him, or at least scold him. The only exception is Bill, who in Ron’s words had always been decent to him (implying the others were not). And perhaps Ron was wrong in his assumptions how his family would have reacted, but I think it is a bit sad that he thought he couldn’t go back there, that they could not forgive him what he had done.


  * So, Xenophilius says he bought the horn of the Crumple-Horned Snorkack (that is actually an Erumpent horn) two weeks ago. Coincidence? I think not. Knowing what we know about his situation someone wanted him to have this horn, knowing how dangerous it is, perhaps hoping it would explode and hurt/kill Xenphilius, making it look like an accident, to make sure he would no longer print the Quibbler, telling people the truth about what actually is going on. And after that didn’t work, they kidnapped Luna.


  * Also, someone someday will write about the role of media during the war, how important outlets like The Quibbler and Potterwatch were during this time, and how much they risked for telling people the truth.




	21. Chapter 21: The Tale of the Three Brothers

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 21: The Tale of the Three Brothers**

  * _“One simply uses the symbol to reveal oneself to other believers, […]”_ – And thus every Potter fan thought: what a neat idea for a tattoo. Surely nobody else has thought about it.


  * _“‘I think you’re right,’ she told him. ‘It’s just a morality tale, it’s obvious which gift is best, which one you’d choose –’ The three of them spoke at the same time; Hermione said, ‘the Cloak,’ Ron said, ‘the wand,’ and Harry said, ‘the stone.’”_ – Hermione chooses the obvious, following the moral of the story, or as Ron says what are supposed to choose. Ron on the other hand chooses the most powerful of the three hallows, believing brute force can beat anything. Harry however, who has lost so many people already in his life, chooses the stone. He does not care about the morality of the story or what hallow is the most powerful – he chooses with his heart, the one hallow that can give him the thing that he desires the most and that no magic can give him back.


  * _“Wands are only as powerful as the wizards who use them. Some wizards just like to boast that theirs are bigger and better than other people’s.’”_ – There is a dick joke hidden in here somewhere, I’m sure of it.


  * _“Luna had decorated her bedroom ceiling with five beautifully painted faces: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Neville. They were not moving as the portraits at Hogwarts moved, but there was a certain certain magic about them all the same: Harry thought they breathed. What appeared to be fine golden chains wove around the pictures, linking them together, but after examining them for a minute or so, Harry realised that the chains were actually one word, repeated a thousand times in golden ink: friends … friends … friends … Harry felt a great rush of affection for Luna.”_ – I as well feel a great rush of affection for Luna. Luna, who never had friends, who longed for them, and when she finally found some she painted them, to have them always around. Also, it is possible that Luna simply does not know the spell to make a portrait move, but perhaps only portraits of the deceased can move and talk? Something something about the imprints of their souls?


  * _“There was a large photograph beside the bed, of a young Luna and a woman who looked very like her. They were hugging. Luna looked rather better-groomed in this picture than Harry had ever seen her in life.”_ – That does imply that Mr. Lovegood was perhaps a bit overwhelmed with taking care of his daughter after his wife’s death. And from all we know about Luna I also believe that it was rather Luna who took care of her father, not the other way around.


  * _“‘They will be here at any moment. I must save Luna. I cannot lose Luna. You must not leave.’ He spread his arms in front of the staircase, and Harry had a sudden vision of his mother doing the same thing in front of his cot.”_ – You can’t really blame Xenophilius for what he had done – of course he would always choose the safety of his own child. And it brings Harry, Ron and Hermione in a very difficult situation, because they neither want Luna or her father to be hurt or worse, while still trying to save their own lives.


  * _“‘I told you last week, Lovegood, we weren’t coming back for anything less than some solid information! Remember last week? When you wanted to swap your daughter for that stupid bleeding headdress? And the week before –’ another bang, another squeal ‘– when you thought we’d give her back if you offered us proof there are Crumple –’ bang ‘– Headed –’ bang ‘– Snorkacks?’”_ – Ok, so the horn wasn’t a trap, but something Xenophilius thought would bring him back Luna.


  * _“Xenophilius’s paper-white face appeared over the top of the sideboard. ‘Obliviate!’ cried Hermione, pointing her wand first into his face, then at the floor beneath them: ‘Deprimo!’”_ – Why would Hermione erase Xenophilius’s memory? She makes sure the Death Eaters see Harry before apparating, so they know Xenophilius told them the truth, so the only reason I can think of is that the Death Eaters don’t know they asked Xenophilius about the Deathly Hallows or perhaps some other information that they could use to find them or find out about their plans.




	22. Chapter 22: The Deathly Hallows

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 22: The Deathly Hallows**

  * _“‘Oh, I hope they don’t kill him!’ groaned Hermione. ‘That’s why I wanted the Death Eaters to get a glimpse of Harry before we left, so they knew Xenophilius hadn’t been lying!’ ‘Why hide me, though?’ asked Ron. ‘You’re supposed to be in bed with spattergroit, Ron! They’ve kidnapped Luna because her father supported Harry! What would happen to your family if they knew you’re with him?’”_ – If you ask me Hermione would have made a great Auror as well. She came up with a plan within seconds in a complete emergency situation, that would guarantee the safety of everyone, including Xenophilius, who is a victim just as much as Harry, Ron and Hermione are. Hermione didn’t panic, didn’t freeze, she acted calm and saved four lives.


  * It is interesting how Hermione completely dismisses the idea of the Deathly Hallows, despite the fact that she knows that an Invisibility Cloak like the one Xenophilius describes exists, and that there are enough stories about an unbeatable wand that it is possible a wand like that exists as well. Two out of three. So why can’t a resurrection stone exist as well? We know that the Philosopher’s Stone did exist (that would give its owner immortality), we know Voldemort found a way to beat death, even though it was just temporary. Magic has its limits and one of them is death. You can’t cheat death (forever) and you can’t bring back people from the dead, even though the very idea seems tempting for Harry. And we later see that what the stone brings back is not the real person, because that is impossible, just as being the owner of all three hallows does not make you the master of Death. Yet, with all the things Hermione has already witnessed in the Magical World she still has her doubts and remains sceptical. Harry’s interest in the stone however is clearly emotional.


  * I wonder if Xenophilius’s interest in the Hallows came after he lost his wife? To him the idea to bring someone back from the dead and perhaps to prevent others from dying (Luna) certainly has some appeal as well.


  * _“‘But she, the girl in the tale, didn’t really come back, did she? The story says that once people are dead, they belong with the dead. But the second brother still got to see her and talk to her, didn’t he? He even lived with her for a while …’ He saw concern and something less easily definable in Hermione’s expression. Then, as she glanced at Ron, Harry realised that it was fear: he had scared her with his talk of living with dead people.”_ – Harry has always been drawn to Death. He could hear voices beyond the veil in the Ministry of Magic, he can see Thestrals, he had tried to find a way to bring Sirius back somehow and in his deepest moment of pain he even wished to be reunited with his godfather. Harry has always been surrounded by Death. Whereas Voldemort is scared of Death Harry is somehow the opposite of it. And it is a fascination that scares Hermione (Ron probably as well). I always liked that one particular line in the tale of the three brothers, that the third brother greeted Death like an old friend, because somehow that is what Death is to Harry: familiar. Nothing to be afraid of.


  * It is interesting how much Harry got right. The Resurrection Stone was indeed in the ring Marvolo Gaunt had, and it was hidden in the Snitch Dumbledore handed on Harry, and the third Peverell brother was an ancestor of Harry, and that is how he got the Invisibility Cloak. And yet Dumbledore never intended that Harry would learn about the Hallows or use them and it was a sheer coincidence that in the end Harry was the owner of all three Hallows for a short moment, because nobody could have planned that Harry would be the owner of the Elder Wand. The Stone was given to him because Dumbledore knew what Harry had to do, that he had to sacrifice himself, and that seeing his parents again and Sirius would be a comfort. The Coat was given to him because it was indeed a family heirloom. Harry was never meant to be the master of Death and in the end it was not what helped him to defeat Voldemort. It was his willingness to die, to give his own life so that others could live.


  * _“Three objects, or Hallows, which, if united, will make the possessor master of Death … master … conqueror … vanquisher … the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death … And he saw himself, possessor of the Hallows, facing Voldemort, whose Horcruxes were no match … neither can live while the other survives … was this the answer? Hallows versus Horcruxes? Was there a way, after all, to ensure that he was the one who triumphed? If he were the master of the Deathly Hallows, would he be safe?”_ – Again, in the end Harry has all three hallows, and it is not what ensures that he survives. But what gets me is the last line: would he be safe? Because Harry doesn’t want to die. He is still a seventeen year old boy, his whole life still ahead of him, scared to die. Which makes his sacrifice even more meaningful. Yes, Harry is familiar with Death, and at times he seemed suicidal (right after he lost Sirius). But ultimately his will to live is stronger. He wants to live, and once he died, once he is at King’s Cross, he has the option to move on, to let go and die. He goes back, he fights. He is still scared, he still wants to be safe, and that is what bravery is all about, doing something despite your fear.


  * _“Harry gazed into the darkness … if Voldemort had known about the Deathly Hallows, surely he would have sought them, done anything to possess them: three objects that made the possessor master of Death? If he had known about the Deathly Hallows, he might not have needed Horcruxes in the first place. Didn’t the simple fact that he had taken a Hallow, and turned it into a Horcrux, demonstrate that he did not know this last great wizarding secret?”_ – I’m not sure if it was ever revealed if Voldemort knew about the Deathly Hallows or if he was after them – but surely he would have no need for a stone that could bring back dead people. The very thought would frighten him (hence his reaction after seeing the ghosts of his last victims shortly after his resurrection). The only way the stone would be useful to him would be to resurrect himself, that is to give his followers this instruction. He doesn’t need a cloak to get invisible, just like Dumbledore doesn’t need one. He wouldn’t even need an unbeatable wand, because he already believes he is the greatest wizard of all time. The only reason he is interested in the Elder Wand is because he thinks this is the way to beat Harry’s wand. Even if Voldemort knew about the Hallows I don’t think he would have been interested in them. To him the Horcruxes seemed to be a more fool-proof way to make sure he would never die.


  * _“‘No, it doesn’t,’ she said. ‘It doesn’t, Harry, you’re just getting carried away. Please,’ she said, as he started to speak, ‘please just answer me this. If the Deathly Hallows really existed, and Dumbledore knew about them, knew that the person who possessed all three of them would be master of Death – Harry, why wouldn’t he have told you? Why?’”_ – Because the Hallows were never the answer. Dumbledore learned that the hard way as a young man and I don’t think he ever intended for Harry to find out about them, it was just a coincidence that he did.


  * _“But he was impervious to the veiled criticism. Dumbledore had left the sign of the Hallows for Hermione to decipher and he had also, Harry remained convinced of it, left the Resurrection Stone hidden in the golden Snitch. Neither can live while the other survives … master of death … why didn’t Ron and Hermione understand?”_ – I think Dumbledore left Harry the Stone so he would find comfort in his final moments, given him the chance to talk again to those he had lost. He gave Ron the Deluminator so he would always find his way back. But what about the book? As I said, I don’t think Dumbledore intended for Harry to find out about the Hallows, yet the book gives enough clues to do so, linking the symbol to the tale of the three brothers. So what was Dumbledore’s intention to give Hermione this particular edition of Beedle the Bard? Perhaps so Harry would learn about the existence of the Resurrection stone, because Dumbledore knew that in time Harry would use it?


  * _“Used to images sharp as reality, Harry was disconcerted by the change. He was worried that the connection between himself and Voldemort had been damaged, a connection that he both feared and, whatever he had told Hermione, prized. Somehow Harry connected these unsatisfying, vague images with the destruction of his wand, as if it was the blackthorn wand’s fault that he could no longer see into Voldemort’s mind as well as before.”_ – We know that the connection exists because Harry is a Horcrux after all and carries a bit of Voldemort’s soul within himself. So is it because they destroyed yet another Horcrux (the third after the diary and the ring) that the connection starts to get weaker?


  * _“As the weeks crept on, Harry could not help but notice, even through his new self-absorption, that Ron seemed to be taking charge. Perhaps because he was determined to make up for having walked out on them: perhaps because Harry’s descent into listlessness galvanised his dormant leadership qualities, Ron was the one now encouraging and exhorting the other two into action.”_ – I think I wrote about that before, but Ron used to be always the least mature of the three, but him leaving and coming back (and defeating his own worst fears) changed him for the better. He overtook the vacant position of the leader, something we would expect Hermione to do. But this is a natural development: when the person who is usually in charge is no longer able to do so others step in and accept responsibility.


  * _“‘Muggles remain ignorant of the source of their suffering as they continue to sustain heavy casualties,’ said Kingsley. ‘However, we continue to hear truly inspirational stories of wizards and witches risking their own safety to protect Muggle friends and neighbours, often without the Muggles’ knowledge. I’d like to appeal to all our listeners to emulate their example, perhaps by casting a protective charm over any Muggle dwellings in your street. Many lives could be saved if such simple measures are taken.’ ‘And what would you say, Royal, to those listeners who reply that in these dangerous times, it should be “wizards first”?’ asked Lee. ‘I’d say that it’s one short step from “wizards first” to “purebloods first”, and then to “Death Eaters”,’ replied Kingsley. ‘We’re all human, aren’t we? Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving.’”_ – Another parallel to the Third Reich and an acknowledgement of all those people risking their own lives while hiding Jews and other people the regime thought were not worth living.


  * _“’[…]The “Boy Who Lived” remains a symbol of everything for which we are fighting: the triumph of good, the power of innocence, the need to keep resisting.’ A mixture of gratitude and shame welled up in Harry. Had Lupin forgiven him, then, for the terrible things he had said when they had last met?”_ – Beautifully said. And a comfort to Harry, to know that Lupin has forgiven him, that things are good again between them, especially now when they are all in mortal danger.


  * _“The radio’s dial twirled and the lights behind the tuning panel went out. Harry, Ron and Hermione were still beaming. Hearing familiar, friendly voices was an extraordinary tonic; Harry had become so used to their isolation he had nearly forgotten that other people were resisting Voldemort. It was like waking from a long sleep.”_ – Through their isolation they are out of the picture of what is going on in the Wizarding World, though they got a glimpse at the Ministry of Magic. However, this is just one side. People do fight back, there is a Resistance, though it may not be as visible as the terror regime they live in now. But this means everything: they are not alone in their fight.




	23. Chapter 23: Malfoy Manor

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 23: Malfoy Manor**

  * _“Harry looked round at the other two, now mere outlines in the darkness. He saw Hermione point her wand, not towards the outside, but into his face; there was a bang, a burst of white light, and he buckled in agony, unable to see. He could feel his face swelling rapidly under his hands, as heavy footfalls surrounded him.”_ – And once again it is Hermione who acts quickly and saves Harry’s life, at least for the moment.


  * _“‘Delicious girl … what a treat … I do enjoy the softness of the skin …’ Harry’s stomach turned over. He knew who this was: Fenrir Greyback, the werewolf who was permitted to wear Death Eater robes in return for his hired savagery.”_ – Greyback has always been described as a predator, and given the fact that he prefers his victims to be young/children, it is implied he is a sexual predator. His interest is in Hermione, not Ron or Harry, perhaps because he sees the latter two already as adults. He is also not interested in Hermione’s blood status. He does not care about the ideology of the Death Eaters. They are just a means to an end, an easy way to get new prey, whereas the Death Eaters can use Greyback to threaten their enemies.


  * _“‘Well, they don’t show the Dark Lord proper respect, so the name’s been Tabooed. A few Order members have been tracked that way. We’ll see. Bind them up with the other two prisoners!’”_ – It isn’t such much about respect or the lack of it, but as Ron recognized rightly an easy way to track down Order members, as they are known to use the name ‘Voldemort’. But in the end nobody uses his name – out of fear or out of respect – while everybody does know his name. Which makes Voldemort even more untouchable, more abstract, less human. Something so evil it doesn’t even have a name.


  * _“[…]the frail man sat up, great sunken eyes fixed upon him, upon Voldemort, and then he smiled. Most of his teeth were gone … ‘So, you have come. I thought you would … one day. But your journey was pointless. I never had it.’”_ – As far as I’m concerned Grindelwald used to have the Elder Wand, though he lost it to Dumbledore. Also, why would he know that Voldemort would come after the wand? He couldn’t possibly know about the connection between Harry’s and Voldemort’s wand, so the only reason why he would have expected Voldemort is simply because people like Voldemort (like Grindelwald himself) always seek more power and naturally are attracted to a wand that is said to be the most powerful one.


  * _“Harry was facing a mirror over the fireplace, a great gilded thing with an intricately scrolled frame. Through the slits of his eyes, he saw his own reflection for the first time since leaving Grimmauld Place. His face was huge, shiny and pink, every feature distorted by Hermione’s jinx. His black hair reached his shoulders and there was a dark shadow around his jaw.”_ – This means that, unlike in the movies, Harry didn’t get a haircut by Hermione, though I wonder why. Or is the hair part of the spell Hermione used to disguise Harry?


  * _“‘Well, Draco?’ said Lucius Malfoy. He sounded avid. ‘Is it? Is it Harry Potter?’ ‘I can’t – I can’t be sure,’ said Draco. He was keeping his distance from Greyback, and seemed as scared of looking at Harry as Harry was of looking at him. […]Harry saw Draco’s face up close, now, right beside his father’s. They were extraordinarily alike, except that while his father looked beside himself with excitement, Draco’s expression was full of reluctance, even fear. ‘I don’t know,’ he said, and he walked away towards the fireplace where his mother stood watching.”_ – Oh Draco. There isn’t really anything he can do about the situation. I’m pretty sure he knows that this is Harry. He knows him well enough to recognize him even like that and of course he recognizes Hermione and Ron. But he can’t bring himself to sell them out to Voldemort, knowing it would result in their deaths. He is not a killer after all. Even if it would bring his family glory, if Voldemort would forgive them their mistakes. But he is not brave enough, never has been, to actively help them. So he lets others make the decision for him, and acts like none of this is his business. But making no choice at all is still a choice after all.


  * _“‘Your authority!’ she sneered, attempting to wrench her hand from his grasp. ‘You lost your authority when you lost your wand, Lucius! How dare you! Take your hands off me!’”_ – Clearly to someone like Bellatrix a wizard without a wand is no one, or at least nobody she could respect.


  * _“‘If she dies under questioning, I’ll take you next,’ she said. ‘Blood traitor is next to Mudblood in my book. Take them downstairs, Greyback, and make sure they are secure, but do nothing more to them – yet.’”_ – That is the very simply reasoning why Bellatrix choose Hermione to torture and question her: they can’t hurt Harry, and between Hermione and Ron, Hermione simply has the lower status. Her life means nothing to Bellatrix, she is disposable.


  * _“‘Harry Potter,’ he squeaked, in the tiniest quiver of a voice, ‘Dobby has come to rescue you.’”_ – Aren’t you a little short for a Stormtrooper?


  * _“As Harry spoke, his scar burned worse than ever, and for a few seconds he looked down, not upon the wandmaker, but on another man who was just as old, just as thin, but laughing scornfully. ‘Kill me, then, Voldemort, I welcome death! But my death will not bring you what you seek … there is so much you do not understand …’”_ – There are some obvious similarities between Voldemort and Grindelwald. Both think of themselves as superior to Muggles and Muggleborn, and both tried to beat Death, one in chasing the Hallows, the other in creating Horcruxes. Grindelwald however seemed to have learned some lessons along the way. He no longer fears death, but welcomes it. And he talks about things Voldemort does not understand, just the way Dumbledore always did. He shows remorse, something Voldemort was never able to.


  * _“‘You’re going to kill me?’ Harry choked, attempting to prise off the metal fingers. ‘After I saved your life? You owe me, Wormtail!’ The silver fingers slackened. Harry had not expected it: he wrenched himself free, astonished, keeping his hand over Wormtail’s mouth. He saw the rat-like man’s small, watery eyes widen with fear and surprise: he seemed just as shocked as Harry at what his hand had done, at the tiny, merciful impulse it had betrayed, and he continued to struggle more powerfully, as though to undo that moment of weakness.”_ – It is interesting that Harry’s argument here is that Harry once saved Wormtail’s life, that Wormtail owes him after all. Not because Harry is James’s son, not because of the betrayal Wormtail committed. Of course the very reason Harry saved Wormtail’s life once was because of his father, because James would have never wanted his son to avenge his death, to become a killer. Both Harry’s choice to save Wormtail’s life and now Wormtail’s choice to spare Harry come back to James after all.


  * _“Without pausing to think, Harry tried to drag back the hand, but there was no stopping it. The silver tool that Voldemort had given his most cowardly servant had turned upon its Disarmed and useless owner; Pettigrew was reaping his reward for his hesitation, his moment of pity; he was being strangled before their eyes. ‘No!’”_ – First of all, even after everything, both Harry and Ron try to save Wormtail’s life, again. Second, just think about the cruelty of this death. Dumbledore knew Pettigrew, knew he had a bit of remorse, and that this would eventually help Harry, but so did Voldemort, who would use this moment of weakness, this betrayal, to kill Wormtail.


  * _“‘Kill me, then!’ demanded the old man. ‘You will not win, you cannot win! That wand will never, ever be yours –’”_ – How could Grindelwald be so sure about this? Because he knew that the one who had defeated Dumbledore is the rightful owner of the Elder Wand? Because it is not just about force, that as we learn soon wands work in their own mysterious way? Is it because of that that Grindelwald knew that the Elder Wand would never be loyal to Voldemort?


  * _“Harry knew it; his scar was bursting with the pain of it, and he could feel Voldemort flying through the sky from far away, over a dark and stormy sea, and soon he would be close enough to Apparate to them, and Harry could see no way out.”_ – Does that mean there is a limit how far the distance can be for apparation?


  * _“As Ron ran to pull Hermione out of the wreckage, Harry took his chance; he leapt over an armchair and wrested the three wands from Draco’s grip, […]”_ – This completely random moment, just two teenage boys fighting, not even with magic, somehow decides the fate of the Wizarding World, because in this moment Harry becomes the owner of the Elder Wand. And Rowling once said that this is the beauty of it, that men like Dumbledore and Voldemort make these huge plans, but you can’t plan everything, and in the end it is this coincidence that decides about the lives of so many.


  * _“The elf’s eyes found him, and his lips trembled with the effort to form words. ‘Harry … Potter …’ And then with a little shudder the elf became quite still, and his eyes were nothing more than great, glassy orbs sprinkled with light from the stars they could not see.”_ – How about no. *cries in the corner*




	24. Chapter 24: The Wandmaker

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 24: The Wandmaker**

  * _“It was like sinking into an old nightmare; for an instant he knelt again beside Dumbledore’s body at the foot of the tallest tower at Hogwarts, but in reality he was staring at a tiny body curled upon the grass, pierced by Bellatrix’s silver knife. Harry’s voice was still saying ‘Dobby … Dobby …’ even though he knew that the elf had gone where he could not call him back.”_ – People around Harry don’t just die – which is tragic enough – they die for him, trying to protect him. His parents died that way, Sirius did, just as Dumbledore and now Dobby. Harry feels responsible for their deaths, because they gave their lives for him. And then of course it is Harry’s willingness to give his own life, so that everyone else is able to live, that will save the day. Harry dies the same way his mother did, willingly sacrificing himself, so that the others can live, that nobody else has to die for him anymore.


  * Harry decides that he wants to dig the grave for Dobby ‘properly’, without magic. In a story that is obviously so full of magic, the absence of magic is significant. Harry becoming the master of the Elder Wand happened without magic, it was simply just two teenage boys fighting, without even realising what was happening that moment. Now Harry purposefully choose not to use magic. He chooses the ‘hard’ way, sweating, getting blisters at his hands, because it is the very least Dobby deserves. Harry needs this kind of pain, this manual work, to distract himself, and as a way to honour Dobby. It is a way to value the sacrifice Dobby committed that someone like Voldemort would never understand; a wizard who doesn’t use magic on purpose to value a creature most would think is lesser than him.


  * _“His scar burned, but he was master of the pain; he felt it, yet was apart from it. He had learned control at last, learned to shut his mind to Voldemort, the very thing Dumbledore had wanted him to learn from Snape. Just as Voldemort had not been able to possess Harry while Harry was consumed with grief for Sirius, so his thoughts could not penetrate Harry now, while he mourned Dobby. Grief, it seemed, drove Voldemort out … though Dumbledore, of course, would have said that it was love …”_ – Grief and love are very similar things; you can’t mourn something you haven’t loved before. Voldemort was never able to love, never understood love, or the things people died because of love, so he can’t understand grief either. Grief is as consuming as love; it leaves little room for something else.


  * _“He then felt in his pocket for a wand. There were two in there. He had forgotten, lost track; he could not now remember whose wands these were; he seemed to remember wrenching them out of someone’s hand. He selected the shorter of the two, which felt friendlier in his hand, and pointed it at the rock.”_ – As a Drarry shipper I took every straw I could get, just like the fact that Harry thought Draco’s wand felt ‘friendlier’. Ahem.


  * _“Griphook looked at him out of the corners of his slanting black eyes. ‘You are an unusual wizard, Harry Potter.’ ‘In what way?’ asked Harry, rubbing his scar absently. ‘You dug the grave.’”_ – Not only did Harry bury an house elf, which in itself is unusual enough, but he did it without using magic. Which earned him Griphook’s respect, as much as a goblin is able to respect a wizard.


  * _“‘If there was a wizard of whom I would believe that they did not seek personal gain,’ said Griphook finally, ‘it would be you, Harry Potter. Goblins and elves are not used to the protection, or the respect, that you have shown this night. Not from wand-carriers.’”_ – Throughout the years we learned a lot about the relationship between wizards and house elves, but not as much about the relationship between goblins and wizards. It has briefly been mentioned that there were some wars between the two, but nothing more. Harry is unaware of the term ‘wand-carrier’. He never thought about the fact that in the Wizarding World only wizards and witches are allowed to carry wands, even though creatures like house elves and goblins have their own magic. House elves of course live to serve their masters and would never dare to ask for a wand. Goblins… not so much. Just as house elves they can work magic in ways wizards can’t, so the question is of course how powerful they could get if they were allowed to carry wands. It is also implied that therefore wands only work for wizards; other magical creatures simply can’t use them. Goblins therefore had to modify wands for their needs. Either way it is clear that wizards want to remain the most powerful within all magical creatures, denying others the right to carry a wand, afraid what they would do with that power.


  * _“‘Why shouldn’t I?’ said Hermione. ‘Mudblood, and proud of it! I’ve got no higher position under this new order than you have, Griphook! It was me they chose to torture, back at the Malfoys’!’”_ – The thing however is that Hermione’s statement implies that she used to have a higher position. If things go back the way they were Hermione’s situation would improve, but not those of the Goblins. And that’s the point: the Goblin’s lives are getting worse but they weren’t great to begin with. The Wizarding World already had an ugly side to begin with, Voldemort and his followers just made it worse. Casual racism was accepted, just as the disregard towards magical beings like house elves and goblins. They were denied the same rights as wizards, despite the fact that they are intelligent and have magic on their own. So it is not just about the fight against Voldemort, after that they have to rebuild the entire Wizard Society. Apart from that I love how Hermione reclaims the insult others use to hurt her, to mark her as someone without worth, and makes the word her own. Mudblood and proud of it.


  * _“‘So young,’ he said finally, ‘to be fighting so many.’”_ – This kinda summarizes the entire series.


  * _“‘I don’t think he’d have told Bellatrix it was a Horcrux, though. He never told Lucius Malfoy the truth about the diary. He probably told her it was a treasured possession and asked her to place it in her vault. The safest place in the world for anything you want to hide, Hagrid told me … except for Hogwarts.’”_ – Which obviously is a clue that another Horcrux is hidden at Hogwarts. However, I’m not sure Hogwarts is that safe to be honest. I mean three first years were able to get the Philosopher’s stone, so *shrugs*.


  * _“‘You talk about wands like they’ve got feelings,’ said Harry, ‘like they can think for themselves.’ […]‘Oh yes, if you are any wizard at all you will be able to channel your magic through almost any instrument. The best results, however, must always come where there is the strongest affinity between wizard wizard and wand. These connections are complex. An initial attraction, and then a mutual quest for experience, the wand learning from the wizard, the wizard from the wand.’”_ – So wands are more than just instruments, otherwise you could just buy any or use any wand at all. We learned in the very first book that there needs to be a connection between the wizard and the wand, but it is more than just that. Wands can change their allegiance. It is almost like the magical core in them makes them alive, gives them feelings. All those year we thought of them as a means to an end, a tool you need to perform magic, but it is more complex than that. The relationship between the wand and the owner is symbiotic, both learning from each other. And yet, when it comes to the final fight between Voldemort and Harry, neither has their original wand, and through circumstances nobody could foresee Harry is the true owner of the Elder Wand.


  * _“‘But it didn’t work,’ Harry went on. ‘Mine still beat the borrowed wand. Do you know why that is?’ Ollivander shook his head as slowly as he had just nodded. ‘I had … never heard of such a thing. Your wand performed something unique that night. The connection of the twin cores is incredibly rare, yet why your wand should have snapped the borrowed wand, I do not know …’”_ – The thing is I really can’t remember if it was ever explained why Harry’s wand acted the way it did, though I’m pretty sure it will be at some point, because Harry keeps mentioning it.


  * _“‘The owner of the Elder Wand must always fear attack,’ said Ollivander, ‘but the idea of the Dark Lord in possession of the Deathstick is, I must admit … formidable.’ Harry was suddenly reminded of how he had been unsure, when they first met, of how much he liked Ollivander. Even now, having been tortured and imprisoned by Voldemort, the idea of the Dark wizard in possession of this wand seemed to enthral him as much as it repulsed him.”_ – I don’t think that Ollivander is in any way a follower of Voldemort or shares his world view. However he is fascinated and impressed by powerful magic and those who perform it, regardless their ideology. It is not about what Voldemort stands for, but the fact that he is one of the most gifted wizards alive, at least to Ollivander. Whereas Harry doesn’t care about anyone’s magical skills, but about their character and what they stand for.


  * _“Ollivander looked stricken. ‘He was torturing me!’ he gasped. ‘The Cruciatus Curse … you have no idea …’ ‘I do,’ said Harry. ‘I really do. Please get some rest. Thank you for telling me all of this.’”_ – I don’t think Harry judges Ollivander for what he has done. Yes he knows how it feels like to be torture, to experience the Cruciatus Curse. Harry did not break, and neither did Hermione while Bellatrix tortured her, but you can’t expect this from everyone. Xenophilius Lovegood gave in when they threatened his daughter, Ollivander broke down after they tortured him. It shows the strength of character Harry had in the past, but also that it is impossible to expect everyone to act like this or to judge them if they don’t. Ollivander feels incredibly sorry for what he has done, even though Harry shows no sign of judgement.




	25. Chapter 25: Shell Cottage

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 25: Shell Cottage**

  * Harry is questioning his own choice to go after the Horcruxes instead of the Hallows, wondering what Dumbledore’s intention was. Clearly Dumbledore gave him the instructing to go after the Horcruxes, but why did he leave behind Hermione the Beedle the Bard book, why the sign on the page of the Tale of the Three Brothers, why all those signs that would be enough to figure out everything about the Deathly Hallows? If Dumbledore would have wanted Harry to get his wand, he could have given it to him while he was still alive or would have made sure he would get it after his death. Instead he passed him down another Hallow, the Resurrection Ring, also knowing Harry already owned the Invisibility Cloak. Harry was never meant to be the Owner of all three Hallows, to be the Master of Death. The book/tale was there to explain the true meaning of the ring, knowing there would be a time when Harry needed the ring. (Did Dumbledore ever use the ring? Did he use it to see his sister one final time?)


  * _“‘I dunno, it could’ve been his ghost!’ ‘Dumbledore wouldn’t come back as a ghost,’ said Harry. There was little about Dumbledore he was sure of, now, but he knew that much. ‘He would have gone on.’ ‘What d’you mean, “gone on”?’ asked Ron, but before Harry could say any more, a voice behind them said, ‘’Arry?’”_ – Again we see that Harry has spent way too much time thinking about death than a teenager should have. He learned about the nature of ghosts when the grief for Sirius had consumed him, when he was looking for some way his godfather could come back to him, and that Death is about letting go, from both sides. Sirius was not the kind of man to stay on earth as a ghost and neither was Dumbledore (and neither is Harry). It takes courage to die, just as it takes courage to live.


  * _“‘It is true?’ Harry asked Hermione. ‘Was the sword stolen by Gryffindor?’ ‘I don’t know,’ she said hopelessly. ‘Wizarding history often skates over what the wizards have done to other magical races, but there’s no account that I know of that says Gryffindor stole the sword.’”_ – History is written by the winners, in this case the wizards.


  * Harry is clearly uncomfortable with what Griphook implies, that the sword Gryffindor owned was stolen from the Goblins. Hermione wonders if that matters, to which Harry replies it changes how he feels about Godric Gryffindor and being a Gryffindor himself. It is important to Harry that the people he looks up to are morally right, no matter if it is Gryffindor himself, Sirius, his own father, or Dumbledore. Harry always tries to do the morally right thing and is disappointed if the men he looks up to (never a woman though) fail him in some way. He has a thing for putting people on a pedestal and he needs to learn still that people are more complex than that, that one bad choice does not make them bad people.


  * _“Harry met her eyes with a mixture of defiance and shame. He remembered the words that had been engraved over the gateway to Nurmengard: For the Greater Good. He pushed the idea away. What choice did they have?”_ – I think Harry knows that arguing doing something morally wrong for a greater good is always somehow wrong. It is after all how Grindelwald justified his actions, how tyrants everywhere justify what they do. It seems impossible to win this war without getting your hands dirty, but does not mean he feels good about it.


  * _“‘Don’t worry about us.’ And when she tried to protest he went on, ‘We’ll be off your hands soon, too, Ron, Hermione and I. We won’t need to be here much longer.’ ‘But what do you mean?’ she said, frowning at him, her wand pointing at the casserole dish now suspended in mid-air. ‘Of course, you must not leave, you are safe ’ere!’ She looked rather like Mrs Weasley as she said it, and he was glad that the back door opened at that moment.”_ – So Bill did marry his mother after all *coughs*. I think Bill is very much aware that Harry, Ron and Hermione are up to something, that Dumbledore gave them a task to finish, and that they will leave again, risking their lives again. And he is not naïve, he knows that nothing he can do will stop them, so everything he can do is to warn them about Griphook. Fleur however is blissfully unaware, believing the children (because that is how she sees them) will stay, will be safe. So clearly Bill has not shared his thoughts with his wife, in the same way his father had helped Ron, knowing he would leave, while Molly thought they would share. Bill is coping the way his father treated his mother, leaving her in the dark, which you know is not actually a good thing.


  * _“‘You don’t understand, Harry, nobody could understand unless they have lived with goblins. To a goblin, the rightful and true master of any object is the maker, not the purchaser. All goblin-made objects are, in goblin eyes, rightfully theirs.’ ‘But if it was bought –’ ‘– then they would consider it rented by the one who had paid the money. They have, however, great difficulty with the idea of goblin-made objects passing from wizard to wizard. You saw Griphook’s face when the tiara passed under his eyes. He disapproves. I believe he thinks, as do the fiercest of his kind, that it ought to have been returned to the goblins once the original purchaser died. They consider our habit of keeping goblin-made objects, passing them from wizard to wizard without further payment, little more than theft.’”_ – That is really not how economy works though. Though I like the idea behind it, that if something is handmade, if it took a lot of craftsmanship, the object truly belongs to the person who created it. My grandmother was a goldsmith and I wouldn’t like the idea either of anyone outside my family owning the jewellery she made.


  * _“As he followed Bill back to the others, a wry thought came to him, born no doubt of the wine he had drunk. He seemed set on course to become just as reckless a godfather to Teddy Lupin as Sirius Black had been to him.”_ – History repeats itself. And by now Harry can accept that his godfather indeed acted reckless, though he also better understands the reasons why. You can’t win a war without taking some risks.




	26. Chapter 26: Gringotts

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 26: Gringotts**

  * _“‘It’ll probably help you get in character, though,’ said Ron. ‘Think what that wand’s done!’ ‘But that’s my point!’ said Hermione. ‘This is the wand that tortured Neville’s mum and dad, and who knows how many other people? This is the wand that killed Sirius!’”_ – Obviously the wand itself is neither good or bad, it simply did what its owner forced it to do. Still, the way Ollivander talked about wands there are almost beings, an extension of their owners. Bellatrix’s wand is part of her and it is hard to distinguish what the wand did from the wand itself. I wonder if there are collectors of famous wands in the Wizarding World. Some wands get passed down the family line, some are fought over like the Elder Wand, and we know that in the case of Dumbledore his wand was buried with him. Is that the usual way? Or are there somewhere museums or private collections of wands, with whispered stories of what these wands did?


  * Owning a wand becomes a new status symbol in this new regime. We learn that Luna got a new wand from Ollivander, whereas Dean lost his wand to the Snatchers, leaving him defenceless. While in Diagon Ally we see so called ‘Wandless’, presumably Muggleborn whose wand has been taken away. A wand is no longer a right, a gift given to you while entering the Wizarding World, but rather a privilege, given only to those who seem worthy enough, therefore those with the right blood.


  * _“Harry looked down at the hawthorn wand that had once belonged to Draco Malfoy. He had been surprised, but pleased, to discover that it worked for him at least as well as Hermione’s had done. Remembering what Ollivander had told them of the secret workings of wands, Harry thought he knew what Hermione’s problem was: she had not won the walnut wand’s allegiance by taking it personally from Bellatrix.”_ – I always suspected that it is not just a matter of winning a wand or not, but also your personal history with the previous owner. Harry did not win Hermione’s wand, but it still worked for him, perhaps because they are friends. Of course he is not friends with Draco, but his attitude towards him has changed at the end of the last school year. Harry felt for the first time some sort of sympathy and pity for Draco.


  * We also learn that it is May by now. Somehow this seems like a long time, regarding that they left the Burrow at the beginning of August, but it may seem like that because of the long stretches of time where none of them had any idea what to do next. On the other hand it seems almost too good to be true that they found and got rid of all the remaining Horcruxes within a few months. And coincidentally roughly in the timespan of one school year at Hogwarts *coughs*.


  * _“‘There,’ said Hermione, ‘how does he look, Harry?’ It was just possible to discern Ron under his disguise, but only, Harry thought, because he knew him so well. Ron’s hair was now long and wavy, he had a thick, brown beard and moustache, no freckles, a short, broad nose and heavy eyebrows. ‘Well, he’s not my type, but he’ll do,’ said Harry. ‘Shall we go, then?’”_ – So what exactly is your type of man then, Harry?


  * _“Though the Death Eater looked offended, he also seemed less suspicious. He glanced down at the man Ron had just Stunned. ‘How did it offend you?’ ‘It does not matter, it will not do so again,’ said Hermione coolly.”_ – The wandless, probably Muggleborn man is in the eyes of Death Eaters (and those who pretend they are some) no longer a person, but just an ‘it’, completely dehumanizing the man in front of them.


  * _“‘This is Dragomir Despard,’ said Hermione; they had decided that a fictional foreigner was the safest cover for Ron to assume. ‘He speaks very little English, but he is in sympathy with the Dark Lord’s aims. He has travelled here from Transylvania to see our new regime.’ ‘Indeed? How do you do, Dragomir?’ ‘’Ow you?’ said Ron, holding out his hand. Travers extended two fingers and shook Ron’s hand as though frightened of dirtying himself.”_ – Racism is hardly ever a theme in the Potter books. Of course Voldemort and his followers pureblood ideology is a metaphor for actual racism, just as the new regime we see now has some chilling similarities to the Nazi regime. However we hardly ever see wizards judging other wizards because of their heritage. And yet Travers clearly dismisses ‘Dragomir’, and he acts surprised to see him in Bellatrix’s company.


  * _“Harry looked up at it, and all of a sudden a knife-sharp memory came to him: standing on this very spot on the day that he had turned eleven, the most wonderful birthday of his life, and Hagrid standing beside him saying, ‘Like I said, yeh’d be mad ter try an’ rob it.’ Gringotts had seemed a place of wonder that day, the enchanted repository of a trove of gold he had never known he possessed, and never for an instant could he have dreamed that he would return to steal … But within seconds they were standing in the vast marble hall of the bank.”_ – The times they are changing. Of course a classic way to mirror the beginning of the story with the end, to the point where Harry himself recalls his first visit to Gringotts. Harry mused about Gringotts as a hiding place for a Horcrux, that perhaps for young (and incredible poor) Tom Riddle the bank became a status of belonging to the Wizarding World, and in a way it became for Harry as well. It feels morally wrong to steal from there, just as it doesn’t feel right to betray Griphook, but once again this war can’t be won without getting your hands dirty.


  * _“‘Your wand will do, Madam,’ said the goblin. He held out a slightly trembling hand, and in a dreadful blast of realisation Harry knew that the goblins of Gringotts were aware that Bellatrix’s wand had been stolen.”_ – There is a strange irony in the fact that Bellatrix of all people, who based her entire worth on the fact that she is a witch, is now wandless. Because what is a witch/wizard without a wand? Still a person, still worthy, at least to those like Harry, Ron and Hermione. But in Bellatrix’s own definition she is nothing more than the wandless people in Diagon Ally, begging for mercy. Despite that, Bellatrix must have had some suspicions that they would break into her vault, although she doesn’t know anything about the Horcruxes, otherwise she wouldn’t have warned the goblins that an imposter might break into her vault.


  * And speaking about getting your hands dirty, Harry uses the Imperius Curse, both on a goblin and Travers. Of course he only does it so their cover won’t blow up and they get out of there alive, but again Harry is crossing a line. He doesn’t actually harm anyone and he uses the Unforgiveable Curse because he has no other choice. However he will use another Unforgiveable Curse during the Battle of Hogwarts, the Cruciatus Curse, though the circumstances are much different. But we will talk about that once we get there.


  * _“‘I don’t think I did it strongly enough, I don’t know …’ And another memory darted through his mind, of the real Bellatrix Lestrange shrieking at him when he had first tried to use an Unforgivable Curse: ‘You need to mean them, Potter!’”_ – Again we see the difference to how Harry later will use the Cruciatus Curse. The Imperius Curse doesn’t work properly because Harry doesn’t really mean it. It is a necessity, without any cruel intention.


  * _“Harry could not hear anything over the rattling of the cart on the tracks: his hair flew behind him as they swerved between stalactites, flying ever deeper into the earth, but he kept glancing back.”_ – Look he remembered they are stalactites, not stalagmites.


  * _“They advanced round the corner again, shaking the Clankers and the noise echoed off the rocky walls, grossly magnified, so that the inside of Harry’s skull seemed to vibrate with the din. The dragon let out another hoarse roar, then retreated. Harry could see it trembling, and as they drew nearer he saw the scars made by vicious slashes across its face, and guessed that it had been taught to fear hot swords when it heard the sound of the Clankers.”_ – I wonder if Hagrid ever knew how they treated dragons at Gringotts, though I kind of doubt it. Surely he would have rescued them all.


  * _“It was Griphook who had seen it and Griphook who lunged, and in that instant Harry knew that the goblin had never expected them to keep their word. One hand holding tightly to a fistful of Harry’s hair to make sure he did not fall into the heaving sea of burning gold, Griphook seized the hilt of the sword and swung it high out of Harry’s reach.”_ – Never trust a Goblin. Griphook has worked with wizards long enough to be suspicious and he has a rather extreme view on their kind. Surely he did not miss that Harry never clarified when he would hand over the sword or that all three of them were as suspicious of Griphook as he was of them.


  * _“The dragon had not realised that it was free: Harry’s foot found the crook of its hind leg and he pulled himself up on to its back. The scales were hard as steel: it did not even seem to feel him. He stretched out an arm; Hermione hoisted herself up; Ron climbed on behind them, and a second later the dragon became aware that it was untethered.”_ – Somehow I don’t remember that part from “ _How to tame your Dragon_ ”.




	27. Chapter 27: The Final Hiding Place

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 27: The Final Hiding Place**

  * _“The Elder Wand slashed through the air and green light erupted through the room, the kneeling goblin rolled over, dead, the watching wizards scattered before him, terrified: Bellatrix and Lucius Malfoy threw others behind them in their race for the door, and again and again his wand fell, and those who were left were slain, all of them, for bringing him this news, for hearing about the golden cup –“_ – Voldemort simply kills out of rage, people die because they were at the wrong place in the wrong time, despite being Voldemort’s followers, despite not being responsible for what has happened. Both Lucius and Bellatrix know Voldemort’s temper well enough to hide, so this is probably not the first time he blindly kills everyone within his rage. He needs no reason, he kills because he can.


  * _“But surely if the boy had destroyed any of his Horcruxes, he, Lord Voldemort, would have known, would have felt it? He, the greatest wizard of them all, he, the most powerful, he, the killer of Dumbledore and of how many other worthless, nameless men: how could Lord Voldemort not have known, if he, himself, most important and precious, had been attacked, mutilated? […]A modicum of calm cooled his rage now: how could the boy know that he had hidden the ring in the Gaunt shack? No one had ever known him to be related to the Gaunts, he had hidden the connection, the killings had never been traced to him: the ring, surely, was safe. And how could the boy, or anybody else, know about the cave or penetrate its protection? The idea of the locket being stolen was absurd … As for the school: he alone knew where in Hogwarts he had stowed the Horcrux, because he alone had plumbed the deepest secrets of that place …”_ – This shows Voldemort’s sheer arrogance, thinking that nobody would be able to find out his secret, that nobody could track down his Horcruxes, that nobody would ever know enough about him, that nobody would have the power to destroy them or that he would not realize that he has been attacked, that he is already weakened. The real danger Dumbledore presented was not in his magical abilities (equal to Voldemort) but in his knowledge about Voldemort; there was nobody else still alive who had known more about him, who knew enough to piece together the bigger picture. The most absurd thought however is Voldemort thinking nobody would find out where he has hidden the Horcrux in Hogwarts. It is hidden in a room full of other hidden objects, a room hundered of students have used before him. And yet he thinks he alone knows all the secrets about Hogwarts.


  * _“… to tell Snape why the boy might return would be foolish, of course; it had been a grave mistake to trust Bellatrix and Malfoy: didn’t their stupidity and carelessness prove how unwise it was, ever, to trust?”_ – Perhaps if you told them exactly what it was they were hiding. But I think deep down Voldemort feared that if anybody would know about his secret, even one of his followers, that they would turn against him, that they might attack him and destroy one of the Horcruxes. Which ironically happened, see Regulus.


  * _“‘Wait, wait!’ cried Hermione, as Ron caught up the Horcrux and Harry pulled out the Invisibility Cloak again. ‘We can’t just go, we haven’t got a plan, we need to –’”_ – You know in the movie adaption Harry reminds Hermione that none of their plans have ever worked out. I liked that line.




	28. Chapter 28: The Missing Mirror

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 28: The Missing Mirror**

  * _“‘Accio Cloak!’ roared one of the Death Eaters. Harry seized its folds, but it made no attempt to escape: the Summoning Charm had not worked on it.”_ – Two things: the Death Eaters already expect Harry to turn up, so Voldemort must have given them a warning, afraid that Harry might have figured out another hiding place for a Horcrux. They also know about the Invisibility Cloak, probably thanks to Snape. Second, the Summoning Charm does not work on said Cloak, which is interesting. Is it one of his magical properties, that not only does it make people underneath it invisible, but that it is immune to certain spells, perhaps escpecially those that would reveal the people underneath? We know that the Summoning Charm did not work on Horcruxes as well, because Voldemort made sure of it, another level of protection. So there must be some kind of counter-charm, that you can work on objects, making it impossible to summon them. It is also impossible to work the Summoning Charm on living objects, so perhaps that is the reason why they don’t work on Horcruxes (which of course leads to the question if Horcruxes are living objects).


  * _“He raised his wand: he could not, would not, suffer the Dementor’s Kiss, whatever happened afterwards. It was of Ron and Hermione that he thought as he whispered, ‘Expecto patronum!’ The silver stag burst from his wand and charged: the Dementors scattered and there was a triumphant yell from somewhere out of sight.”_ – First of all, it is really impressive that even in a situation like theirs Harry is able to produce a Patronus; it shows his mental strength. Second, he makes the choice that neither himself or Ron or Hermione would be kissed by a Dementor, losing their soul in the process. By exposing themselves however he risks all of their lives (though it is impossible for them to disapparate, so what choice do they have left?). But it reminds me (and perhaps Harry as well) of something Dumbledore once said: there are worse fates than death. And losing your soul is certainly is certainly one of them.


  * _“‘My brother Albus wanted a lot of things,’ said Aberforth, ‘and people had a habit of getting hurt while he was carrying out his grand plans. You get away from this school, Potter, and out of the country if you can. Forget my brother and his clever schemes. He’s gone where none of this can hurt him, and you don’t owe him anything.’ […]‘Did he, now?’ said Aberforth. ‘Nice job, I hope? Pleasant? Easy? Sort of thing you’d expect an unqualified wizard kid to be able to do without overstretching themselves?’ […]‘I knew my brother, Potter. He learned secrecy at our mother’s knee. Secrets and lies, that’s how we grew up, and Albus … he was a natural.’”_ – I really like Aberforth’s role within the story. We heard about him, but until now we never met him. What little did we know about him we learned from Dumbledore, and it was obvious that the two of them didn’t get along. Aberforth is part of the resistance, he tries to help wherever he can, but he is also realistic about everything that is going on and has lost his hope in the process. What he is telling to Harry is not meant to hurt him or to defile the image Harry has of Dumbledore – he tells it because he as well cares about Harry and wants to save him. Unlike his brother however he thinks the best chance Harry has for survival is to hide, perhaps best abroad. It is not about what benefits the most, that Harry might actually be in the position to defeat Voldemort. Aberforth only sees a teenage boy (and his two best friends), who has been given an impossible task, that will most likely kill him. Harry is not a hero, not the Chosen One, but nothing more than a child, neither qualified or prepared to do what Dumbledore wants him to do. Aberforth does not support the narrative that we have been told so far, with Harry as the saviour and Dumbledore as his mentor, that we should trust blindly. Aberforth just tells the cold hard truth that Harry does not want to hear: that Harry is too young, too inexperienced for the task that he has been given and that Dumbledore should not be trusted, that he kept secrets all his life and that he did not tell Harry the entire truth either. It is almost like breaking the fourth wall, as if a disillusioned reader tries to tell Harry how it is, that is not the Heroe’s Journey where everything will end well, but that there is a big chance he might die any moment. And I think it is a bold move from Rowling to bring in this moment of awareness, to have these characters be confronted with the ugly truth.


  * _“Harry kept quiet. He did not want to express the doubts and uncertainties about Dumbledore that had riddled him for months now. He had made his choice while he dug Dobby’s grave; he had decided to continue along the winding, dangerous path indicated for him by Albus Dumbledore, to accept that he had not been told everything that he wanted to know, but simply to trust. He had no desire to doubt again, he did not want to hear anything that would deflect him from his purpose.”_ – So much about Harry’s process growing up is about taking people from the pedestal he put them on, to stop idealizing them, and see them for who they are. He did this with his father and Sirius, and with Dumbledore as well. He learned about their mistakes and flaws and it always hurt him to learn that those men weren’t quite as he had them pictured. But people are not just good and bad, they are much more complex than that. Good people make mistakes as well and bad choices. It does not make them bad people; it makes them human. Harry had his doubts about Dumbledore, but he also made his choice to trust Dumbledore and follow his plan. He doesn’t want to hear anything bad about him, because it matters to Harry if the people he looks up to, that he is supposed to trust, are morally right. It makes a difference to him.


  * _“‘When my sister was six years old, she was attacked, set upon, by three Muggle boys. They’d seen her doing magic, spying through the back garden hedge: she was a kid, she couldn’t control it, no witch or wizard can at that age. What they saw scared them, I expect. They forced their way through the hedge, and when she couldn’t show them the trick, they got a bit carried away trying to stop the little freak doing it.’”_ – Given what had happened to his sister it is easy to see why the young Dumbledore fell so hard for Grindelwald. They were equally gifted, but I think Grindelwald’s way of think that wizards are superior, that they should rule over Muggles, all for the so called Greater Good, would hit fertile ground with Dumbledore. Muggles were responsible for his sister’s fate and the reason his father would end up in Azkaban, which would start his family having to keep secrets, even though they were the victims. Grindelwald would have had his way to retell this story in a way that Dumbledore would agree with his ideas. And yet, despite this, despite his family’s history, Dumbledore didn’t go down the same path so many others did. He changed his mind, he realized how wrong he was, and dedicated the rest of his life to protect Muggles and Muggleborn.


  * _“‘It destroyed her, what they did: she was never right again. She wouldn’t use magic, but she couldn’t get rid of it: it turned inwards and drove her mad, it exploded out of her when she couldn’t control it, and at times she was strange and dangerous. But mostly she was sweet, and scared, and harmless.” –_ There is a quite popular theory that Ariana was an Obscurial and that through her Grindelwald first came in contact with those. He saw her raw power, saw the kind of destruction she could cause, and wanted to use such power for himself, which is the reason he was later interested in Credence Bareborne. Until this point we had always assumed that magic is a natural part of every wizard and witch, something you can learn to control and channel. Now though it seems like magic can become a thing of its own, and if you are afraid of it, if you want to get rid of it, it can turn against you. It can become a parasite, something that lives inside you and will sooner or later kill you.


  * _“‘I was her favourite,’ he said, and as he said it, a grubby schoolboy seemed to look out through Aberforth’s wrinkles and tangled beard. ‘Not Albus, he was always up in his bedroom when he was home, reading his books and counting his prizes, keeping up with his correspondence with “the most notable magical names of the day”,’ Aberforth sneered, ‘he didn’t want to be bothered with her. She liked me best. I could get her to eat when she wouldn’t do it for my mother, I could get her to calm down when she was in one of her rages, and when she was quiet, she used to help me feed the goats.”_ – For one thing this explains Aberforth’s… fascination with goats. They remind him of a better time, of a calm life with his family. There is also the underlying accusation that Albus Dumbledore did not care about his sister, that he could not be bothered to be interested in her or take care of her. And perhaps he didn’t, because he was a teenager after all, a highly gifted teenager, who had other things on his mind. And yet he never wanted his sister to get hurt, yet he still loved her. And I think not only does he regret what has happened to her, but that he did not spend enough time with her while she was still alive.


  * _“‘He was never free,’ said Harry. ‘I beg your pardon?’ said Aberforth. ‘Never,’ said Harry. ‘The night that your brother died he drank a potion that drove him out of his mind. He started screaming, pleading with someone who wasn’t there. “Don’t hurt them, please … hurt me instead.” ’”_ – The night Ariana died the rest of her family died with her. Perhaps Albus was never able to express his regret to Aberforth, perhaps he did and Aberforth did not believe him. Something was broken that night, irreplaceable. It comes to Aberforth as a surprise, a shock, that during his final hours his brother was forced to relive his worst memory and that it was the night Ariana died.


  * _“Aberforth seemed lost in contemplation of his own knotted and veined hands. After a long pause, he said, ‘How can you be sure, Potter, that my brother wasn’t more interested in the greater good than in you? How can you be sure you aren’t dispensable, just like my little sister?’ A shard of ice seemed to pierce Harry’s heart. ‘I don’t believe it. Dumbledore loved Harry,’ said Hermione.”_ – Dumbledore does sacrifice Harry for the greater good; there is no other choice. And yet he still loves him. He still cares. He still tried to find a loophole, a way for Harry to survive after all, to live a life free of any burden. But this Harry’s worst fear: that Dumbledore did not care, that he is nothing more than a tool.


  * _“‘No, it isn’t,’ said Harry. ‘Your brother knew how to finish You-Know-Who and he passed the knowledge on to me. I’m going to keep going until I succeed – or I die. Don’t think I don’t know how this might end. I’ve known it for years.’”_ – Harry is not naïve. He is petrified and scared and he does not want to die and yet he keeps going, yet he tries to master a nearly impossible task. He keeps going and that is true bravery.


  * _“Larger and larger the two figures grew, until only their heads and shoulders filled the portrait. Then the whole thing swung forwards on the wall like a little door, and the entrance to a real tunnel was revealed. And out of it, his hair overgrown, his face cut, his robes ripped, clambered the real Neville Longbottom, who gave a roar of delight, leapt down from the mantelpiece and yelled, ‘I knew you’d come! I knew it, Harry!’”_ – I wonder if there had always been a secret passage between the Hog’s Head and Hogwarts or if this is part of the magic of the Room of Requirement, that they needed a way out of Hogwarts and suddenly it appeared. Also we have never seen a portrait work like this before. Yes the people in portraits can move, but they can’t bring real people with them. I wonder if there is a second portrait of Ariana in the Room of Requirement as well, and if the others saw Harry, Ron and Hermione arriving as well.




	29. Chapter 29: The Lost Diadem

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 29: The Lost Diadem**

  * _“Nevertheless, his battered visage shone with happiness as he let go of Hermione and said again, ‘I knew you’d come! Kept telling Seamus it was a matter of time!’”_ – Why was Neville so certain Harry would come though? Because he always saves the day? Because he is the Chosen One, their ultimate saviour? Up until this moment Harry, Ron and Hermione had no idea how drastically Hogwarts has changed. They might had some ideas, but the reality is worse. They are coming to Hogwarts not to save everyone, but because they are looking for a Horcrux. Nevertheless the idea of Harry seeing how much Hogwarts has changed and not doing anything about it seems impossible. Harry might not be there for the reason Neville thought he would be, but he stays for it. To fight back, to save the school, his very first home, and everyone in it.


  * Neville mentions that to avoid the Caterwauling Charm people just have to apparate straight into the Hog’s Head. So, what is the use of that Charm when there is such an obvious loophole? You can’t apparate straight into Hogsmeade, but very well in a bar in Hogsmeade. Not the most well thought plan.


  * _“‘Doesn’t matter. They don’t want to spill too much pure blood, so they’ll torture us a bit if we’re mouthy but they won’t actually kill us.’ Harry did not know what was worse, the things that Neville was saying or the matter-of-fact tone in which he said them.”_ – It feels like Rowling wanted to create the worst possible version of Hogwarts, with Death Eaters in charge, who regularly torture students and/or force other students to torture as well. And I get what she wanted to do here: to show that Hogwarts is no longer a safe space, that it has lost its innocence, that it is infiltrated by something sinister. But it almost feels over the top. And we know that Voldemort cares about Hogwarts as well, that just as with Harry, this was his first real home as well. Does he know what has become of Hogwarts? Does it matter to him? Is it just as Neville says, everything is okay as long as they don’t spill too much pureblood blood?


  * _“Thing was,’ he faced them, and Harry was astonished to see that he was grinning, ‘they bit off a bit more than they could chew with Gran. Little old witch living alone, they probably thought they didn’t need to send anyone particularly powerful. Anyway,’ Neville laughed, ‘Dawlish is still in St Mungo’s and Gran’s on the run. She sent me a letter,’ he clapped a hand to the breast pocket of his robes, ‘telling me she was proud of me, that I’m my parents’ son, and to keep it up.’”_ – I’m still not completely cool with Mrs. Longbottom, because she put so much pressure on Neville in the past, but you must admit she is… awesome.


  * _“Multicoloured hammocks were strung from the ceiling and from a balcony that ran around the dark wood-panelled and windowless walls, which were covered in bright tapestry hangings: Harry saw the gold Gryffindor lion, emblazoned on scarlet; the black badger of Hufflepuff, set against yellow, and the bronze eagle of Ravenclaw, on blue. The silver and green of Slytherin alone were absent.”_ – Say what you want, but I think it is presumptuous to assume that not a single Slytherin student would have been in the Resistance as well. During the battle of Hogwarts Slytherin students don’t belong; they don’t along the others against the Death Eaters and/or try to save Hogwarts. It is simply impossible that every Slytherin student has Death Eaters as parents. And we know that people like Regulus Black and Snape were essential in the fight against Voldemort.


  * _“‘Yeah, well, food’s one of the five exceptions to Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfiguration,’ said Ron, to general astonishment.”_ – Never say Ron does not listen to what Hermione tells him.


  * _“And when Harry looked unconvinced, ‘You don’t have to do everything alone, Harry.’ Harry thought fast, his scar still prickling, his head threatening to split again. Dumbledore had warned him against telling anyone but Ron and Hermione about the Horcruxes. Secrets and lies, that’s how we grew up, and Albus … he was a natural … Was he turning into Dumbledore, keeping his secrets clutched to his chest, afraid to trust?”_ – There is the archetype of the lonesome hero, of Harry as the Chosen One, the only one able to defeat Voldemort, the only one who knows the secret how to defeat him (except Ron and Hermione, who he only told about the Horcruxes because Dumbledore to do so). But in the end it is not just Harry who stops Voldemort, it is everyone. Others help destroying Horcruxes as well, the openly rebel and fight against the terror regime Voldemort has created. It is the success of the many, not just a single person. And Harry is right in trusting others, in asking for help. All of them are willing to risk their lives for him, to do the right thing, they deserve to be able to help him.


  * _“Cho had got to her feet, but Ginny said rather fiercely, ‘No, Luna will take Harry, won’t you, Luna?’ ‘Oooh, yes, I’d like to,’ said Luna happily, and Cho sat down again, looking disappointed.”_ – Perhaps not the right place and time for jealousy, like I don’t think Harry will be much tempted to make out with Cho in the middle of a Horcrux hunt.


  * I love how extra the Ravenclaw common room is, you have to answer a riddle to get in, passwords of course are for the dumb houses.




	30. Chapter 30: The Sacking of Severus Snape

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 30: The Sacking of Severus Snape**

  * _“‘He told us Potter might try and get inside Ravenclaw Tower, and to send for him if we caught him!’ ‘Why would Harry Potter try to get inside Ravenclaw Tower? Potter belongs in my house!’ Beneath the disbelief and anger, Harry heard a little strain of pride in her voice, and affection for Minerva McGonagall gushed up inside him.”_ – First of all Voldemort fears that Harry somehow has found out about another Horcrux, that he knows that it is connected to Ravenclaw, that he might even knows that it is the diadem, and he therefore would go to the Ravenclaw tower. Second I love the relationship between McGonagall and Harry. Sure she has always been strict, but it has always been clear how much she cared about Harry.


  * _“‘It’s not a case of what you’ll permit, Minerva McGonagall. Your time’s over. It’s us what’s in charge here now, and you’ll back me up or you’ll pay the price.’ And he spat in her face. Harry pulled the Cloak off himself, raised his wand and said, ‘You shouldn’t have done that.’ As Amycus spun round, Harry shouted, ‘Crucio!’ […]‘I see what Bellatrix meant,’ said Harry, the blood thundering through his brain, ‘you need to really mean it.’”_ – This is the second time that day that Harry uses an Unforgiveable Curse, after using the Imperius Curse earlier at Gringotts. Back then it was a means to an end, something he had to do in order to keep their cover and survive. Now however his reaction is completely emotional and unlike before he has no trouble using the Curse. You have to mean them and he does. He crossed a line here, he tortured someone (and the question is not whether or not someone deserves that). It is a dark side of Harry that we haven’t seen before, and it shows that even someone as genuine good and compassionate as Harry can act sinister under the right circumstances.


  * First of all the duel between McGonagall and Snape is just… awesome. And then all the other Head of Houses come to her help. The entire school year that had to work under Snape, the man who killed Dumbledore, trying to resist in secret, to keep the students safe. But they could not speak their mind, could not fight against him until now. Someone who was their colleague, someone they trusted (because Dumbledore trusted Snape and that was enough), and who betrayed all of them.


  * _“‘The time has come for Slytherin House to decide upon its loyalties,’ interrupted Professor McGonagall. ‘Go and wake your students, Horace.’”_ – Again I wish we would have seen a few Slytherin students on Harry’s side, fighting along the others to protect Hogwarts, to fight for the right thing.


  * _“‘And now – piertotum locomotor! ’ cried Professor McGonagall. And all along the corridor the statues and suits of armour jumped down from their plinths, and from the echoing crashes from the floors above and below, Harry knew that their fellows throughout the castle had done the same. ‘Hogwarts is threatened!’ shouted Professor McGonagall. ‘Man the boundaries, protect us, do your duty to our school!’”_ – And all those years we thought the armours were just décor.


  * _“‘Come on, Luna,’ Dean called as he passed, holding out his free hand; she took it and followed him back up the stairs.”_ – I ship it. Seriously though I think it is impossible for anyone not to get fond of Luna when they spend a bit time with her.


  * _“There was a scuffling and a great thump: someone else had clambered out of the tunnel, overbalanced slightly and fallen. He pulled himself up on the nearest chair, looked around through lopsided horn-rimmed glasses and said, ‘Am I too late? Has it started? I only just found out, so I – I –’ Percy spluttered into silence. Evidently he had not expected to run into most of his family.”_ – I admit that by now I have kind of forgotten about Percy. Nevertheless times of crisis bring out the best and worst in people, and I’m glad we could witness this family reunion before well… you know.




	31. Chapter 31: The Battle of Hogwarts

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_ **

**Chapter 31: The Battle of Hogwarts**

  * _“‘Where’s Professor Snape?’ shouted a girl from the Slytherin table. ‘He has, to use the common phrase, done a bunk,’ replied Professor McGonagall, and a great cheer erupted from the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws.”_ – The thing is Snape had been Head of House Slytherin for years, and at least to students of his own house he had shown some sort of compassion. It is natural that the Slytherins want to know where their former Head of House is, someone they trust, probably more than any other teacher, given the outsider role they have within the school.


  * _“‘I know that you are preparing to fight.’ There were screams amongst the students, some of whom clutched each other, looking around in terror for the source of the sound. ‘Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magical blood.’”_ – He doesn’t want to spill any blood, as long as it is the ‘right’ blood. By now Voldemort made sure Hogwarts is only available for those he seems worthy enough, purebloods and halfbloods. Wizards and witches are already low in numbers, especially purebloods, so Voldemort does not want to kill anyone he considers to be of the right race. It shows his ideology in all his cruelty, where humans are only defined by their blood, if this is the only thing that defines if they have a right to live or not.


  * _“Then a figure rose from the Slytherin table and he recognised Pansy Parkinson as she raised a shaking arm and screamed, ‘But he’s there! Potter’s there! Someone grab him!’ Before Harry could speak, there was a massive movement. The Gryffindors in front of him had risen and stood facing, not Harry, but the Slytherins. Then the Hufflepuffs stood, and, almost at the same moment, the Ravenclaws, all of them with their backs to Harry, all of them looking towards Pansy instead, and Harry, awestruck and overwhelmed, saw wands emerging everywhere, pulled from beneath cloaks and from under sleeves.”_ – I admit I always felt a bit indifferent about Pansy. Sure she bullied Harry, Ron and Hermione every chance she got, but she was never a character that I loathed until this moment, where she thought it was okay to outsell Harry and lead him to the scaffold. And I can’t express how much it warms my heart to see the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws act in unity, all ready to defend Harry.


  * _“Slowly, the four tables emptied. The Slytherin table was completely deserted, but a number of older Ravenclaws remained seated while their fellows filed out: even more Hufflepuffs stayed behind, and half of Gryffindor remained in their seats, necessitating Professor McGonagall’s descent from the teachers’ platform to chivvy the under-age on their way.”_ – Well half of Slytherin would be fighting their own parents if they stay, so what do you expect? But it really shows the nature of each house. Slytherins, who are loyal to no one but themselves, always saving their own skin. Ravenclaws making what they consider to be the smart choice, their best chance of survival. Hufflepuffs who are above all things loyal, to Hogwarts, to Harry. And Gryffindors, always brave, always ready to fight for the right thing.


  * Six years at Hogwarts and Harry still has to ask who the ghost of Ravenclaw is. Typically.


  * _“‘He tracked me to the forest where I was hiding. When I refused to return with him, he became violent. The Baron was always a hot-tempered man. Furious at my refusal, jealous of my freedom, he stabbed me.’ ‘The Baron? You mean –?’ ‘The Bloody Baron, yes,’ said the Grey Lady, and she lifted aside the cloak she wore to reveal a single dark wound in her white chest.”_ – Just imagine you get murdered, you can’t move on, so you become a ghost, and then you have to spent your afterlife in the same place as the man who killed you. The Baron killed himself and wore chains as a punishment. But it feels like Helena punishes herself as well, perhaps for the theft she committed. Her inability to move on, to leave Hogwarts and therefore the Baron. It seems like they are both trapped forever in the past.


  * _“‘You’ve already told someone this story, haven’t you? Another student?’ She closed her eyes and nodded. ‘I had … no idea … he was … flattering. He seemed to … to understand … to sympathise …’ Yes, Harry thought, Tom Riddle would certainly have understood Helena Ravenclaw’s desire to possess fabulous objects to which she had little right.”_ – It is the same way he had charmed Hepzibah Smith, though of course he could not kill a ghost after getting the information he wanted. It does however explain Voldemort’s connection to Albania. He went there to get the diadem and later chose it as a hiding place. And there is another parallel – Helena feels ashamed about what she done, what she had told Tom Riddle, though I’m certain she knows nothing about Horcruxes and I’m not sure she knows that Tom Riddle later became Volemort. Her shame is similar to Slughorn. Both times the information he got was a crucial part in creating his Horcruxes, both times the informants later regretted what they had done.


  * _“Tom Riddle, who confided in no one and operated alone, might have been arrogant enough to assume that he, and only he, had penetrated the deepest mysteries of Hogwarts Castle. Of course, Dumbledore and Flitwick, those model pupils, had never set foot in that particular place, but he, Harry, had strayed off the beaten track in his time at school – here at last was a secret he and Voldemort knew, that Dumbledore had never discovered –“-_ It still baffles me that Riddle discovered the room full of hidden things and thought he was the only one who had ever been there. Harry however is not right – Dumbledore did know about the rom of requirements. In ‘Goblet of Fire’ he mentions during the diner at the yule ball that he had discovered a room full of chamber pots when he needed a toilet. So Dumbledore had been in the room, and it is hard to imagine he had never found out how it worked. Just as it is hard to imagine Dumbledore had never asked the ghost of Helena Ravenclaw about the diadem, the most obvious object that is connected to Ravenclaw. There is still a chance Dumbledore wouldn’t have found the diadem, because he wouldn’t have known how to ask for the right room. But it is kind of a stretch to think that Harry found out what the Ravenclaw Horcrux is and Dumbledore did not.


  * _“‘– attacking because they haven’t handed you over, yeah,’ said Aberforth, ‘I’m not deaf, the whole of Hogsmeade heard him. And it never occurred to any of you to keep a few Slytherins hostage? There are kids of Death Eaters you’ve just sent to safety. Wouldn’t it have been a bit smarter to keep ’em here?’ ‘It wouldn’t stop Voldemort,’ said Harry, ‘and your brother would never have done it.’”_ – Dumbledore saw the Slytherin students simply as that – students, children, who are not responsible for the choices of their parents. Keeping them as hostages is – ironically – a very Slytherin thing to do. (I wonder in which house Aberforth had been)


  * _“‘So we’re another Horcrux down,’ said Ron, and from under his jacket he pulled the mangled remains of Hufflepuff ’s cup. ‘Hermione stabbed it. Thought she should. She hasn’t had the pleasure yet.’”_ – I wonder if this Horcrux had put up a fight just like the locket did, if it had confronted Hermione with her worst fears as well? Apart from that it was indeed brilliant of Ron to think about the only other thing they know can destroy Horcruxes, simply because Harry had already (accidently) destroyed one Horcrux like that. Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best.


  * _“‘I was the last to come through,’ said Mrs Longbottom. ‘I sealed it, I think it unwise to leave it open now Aberforth has left his pub. Have you seen my grandson?’ ‘He’s fighting,’ said Harry. ‘Naturally,’ said the old lady proudly. ‘Excuse me, I must go and assist him.’”_ – Most badass duo. Fight me.


  * _“‘No,’ said Ron seriously, ‘I mean we should tell them to get out. We don’t want any more Dobbys, do we? We can’t order them to die for us –’ There was a clatter as the Basilisk fangs cascaded out of Hermione’s arms. Running at Ron, she flung them around his neck and kissed him full on the mouth. Ron threw away the fangs and broomstick he was holding and responded with such enthusiasm that he lifted Hermione off her feet.”_ – FINALLY! And it shows Ron’s growth, who had always belittled Hermione’s fight for the house elves. He sees them as beings with feelings, who have a right to live just as everyone else. And of course Hermione had romantic feelings for Ron long before this, but it is this moment, when he supports her cause, without any second thoughts, that she allows herself to surrender to her feelings. And Ron is right: it is now or never.


  * _“They were in a place the size of a cathedral with the appearance of a city, its towering walls built of objects hidden by thousands of long-gone students. ‘And he never realised anyone could get in?’ said Ron, his voice echoing in the silence.”_ – Exactly Ron, exactly.


  * _“‘That’s my wand you’re holding, Potter,’ said Malfoy, pointing his own through the gap between Crabbe and Goyle. ‘Not any more,’ panted Harry, tightening his grip on the hawthorn wand. ‘Winners, keepers, Malfoy. Who’s lent you theirs?’ ‘My mother,’ said Draco.”_ – It is not just that Draco lost his wand, it is the fact that Harry of all people owns it now. By now all of the Malfoys have lost their wands. Lucius lost it to Voldemort and it was destroyed in the process. Draco lost his wand to Harry, and Narcissa gave away her wand to her son, so he at least could protect himself. Under Voldemort’s new regime Muggleborns are no longer allowed to carry a wand, as they are seen not as proper wizards/witches. Ironically though by now some of the proudest members of Voldemort’s inner circle are wandless as well – the Malfoys and Bellatrix (though Bellatrix somehow manages to get herself a new wand). By their own definition they are nothing more now than Muggles – that means they are nothing at all.


  * _“‘I virtually lived in the Room of Hidden Things all last year,’ said Malfoy, his voice brittle. ‘I know how to get in.’”_ – I wonder though if Draco knows about the Room of Requirement, that means if he knows the room can change, or if he only knows the room as the Room of Hidden Things. Did he figure out that this room is the same room Dumbledore’s Army used as a hiding place? That his year was used as a hiding place as well? Though Harry mentions that the diadem is in the room where everything else is hidden, so Draco knew exactly where to look for him.


  * It is interesting to look at Draco’s behaviour, because it leaves open room for interpretation. He orders Crabbe around, tells him not to destroy the diadem Harry is looking for, cause it is obviously important, tells him not to kill Harry (again this would be against Voldemort’s orders) and gets furious when Crabbe used the Cruciatus Curse against Harry. Draco argues that he acts on Voldemort’s orders, that Voldemort wants Harry alive, and that the diadem might be important. However Crabbe argues against him. They don’t know exactly what’s up with the diadem (and if it is important to Harry so what?) and if Crabbe tries to torture Harry he ain’t killing him. Is it possible that Draco might secretly tries to help Harry, under the disguise to act on Voldemort’s orders? Is that the reason he wanted to find him? The reason he doesn’t want the diadem to get accidently destroyed, knowing Harry needs it probably to defeat Voldemort? The reason he does not want to see Harry dead? He had the chance to sell Harry out at Malfoy Manor and did not use it. Crabbe on the other side is tired to get ordered around by Draco. He knows that the Malfoys by now have no more power him and his family, that they are in his own words ‘finished’. And we seen how incredibly dangerous Crabbe is oncehe is no longer controlled by Draco. Crabbe who acts on instinct and his cruel nature, without thinking about the consequences, and is ultimately killed by his own stupidity by releasing the Fiendfyre.


  * _“Harry could not see a trace of Malfoy, Crabbe or Goyle anywhere: he swooped as low as he dared over the marauding monsters of flame to try to find them, but there was nothing but fire: what a terrible way to die … he had never wanted this …”_ – If anything this shows Harry true nature and character. He risks his own life to save the very people who wanted his death. I think it is safe to say that Harry has his doubts about Draco, whether Draco still fully supports Voldemort or not, but it was Crabbe who started the Fiendfyre, who had aimed killing curses at both Hermione and Harry himself. And yet Harry can’t bear the thought of them dying like this, burning alive. Despite the cruelty of the war, the horrors he had to witness, he remains pure, a genuine good person.


  * _“‘C – Crabbe,’ choked Malfoy, as soon as he could speak. ‘C – Crabbe …’ ‘He’s dead,’ said Ron harshly.”_ – It is hard to define the relationship between Malfoy and Crabbe & Goyle. Mostly they acted as his bodyguards and he ordered them around, clearly using the fact that his family was more powerful than theirs. But they are not friends. Draco always looked down on them and the moment he had no more power over them they turned against him. Still, I think Draco cared to some amount about Crabbe and did not wanted him to die.


  * There is the question if the Room of Requirement still works after the Fiendfyre, though I somehow doubt it. It is a kind of curse that destroys everything, even this century old magic, depriving future generations of this wonderful room.


  * _“A blood-like substance, dark and tarry, seemed to be leaking from the diadem. Suddenly Harry felt the thing vibrate violently, then break apart in his hands, and as it did so, he thought he heard the faintest, most distant scream of pain, echoing not from the grounds or the castle, but from the thing that had just fragmented in his fingers. ‘It must have been Fiendfyre!’ whimpered Hermione, her eyes on the broken pieces. ‘Sorry?’ ‘Fiendfyre – cursed fire – it’s one of the substances that destroy Horcruxes, but I would never, ever have dared use it, it’s so dangerous. How did Crabbe know how to –?’”_ – By now Draco and Goyle are still in the same corridor, though Goyle is still stunned (and both are wandless by now). I wonder however how much of that conversation Draco has overheard, because it would mean he knows now about Horcruxes, though it is possible however that this information is not very useful to him, as only a very few people know what exactly Horcruxes are. Though Draco grew up in a household full of Dark Objects, so he might have heard about them at some point before.


  * _“‘No – no – no!’ someone was shouting. ‘No! Fred! No!’ And Percy was shaking his brother, and Ron was kneeling beside them, and Fred’s eyes stared without seeing, the ghost of his last laugh still etched upon his face.”_ – The thing is that it impossible that this battle would be won without some casualties. And I always knew that there would be some deaths that would hurt a lot. And statistically there are too many Weasleys that they all would survive. And yet… I think besides Ron (and perhaps Ginny) Fred & George were there characters whose deaths would have the most impact. We spent the most time with them, and they were always fun, always lighthearted, somehow immune to tragedy and pain. I think killing off characters is always hard for writers, choosing which characters have to die, and giving them meaningful deaths, that have an impact on the story. Fred’s death means a loss of innocence, a hole in the family that Harry is part of well. I think that killing off Hermione, Ron or Ginny (the most important people to Harry) would have hit differently and some might say Rowling didn’t have the courage to kill those important characters. However I think if one of them would have died it would have broken Harry beyond repair.




	32. Chapter 32: The Elder Wand

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 32: The Elder Wand**

  * _“‘Get down!’ Harry shouted, as more curses flew through the night: he and Ron had both grabbed Hermione and pulled her to the floor, but Percy lay across Fred’s body, shielding it from further harm, and when Harry shouted, ‘Percy, come on, we’ve got to move!’ he shook his head.”_ – It is always interesting to see how we react towards dead bodies, especially of those we were close to. Despite knowing it is nothing more than flesh and bones, that the person we love is gone, there is a certain kind of tenderness we express. Percy can’t bear the thought that anything would happen to Fred, despite knowing he can no longer help him. There is almost nothing we would not do to give our loved ones a proper burial, to lay their body to rest, because it is the only thing we have left of them.


  * _“He was rolling his wand between his fingers, watching it, his thoughts on the Room in the castle, the secret Room only he had ever found, the Room, like the Chamber, that you had to be clever, and cunning, and inquisitive to discover … he was confident that the boy would not find the diadem … although Dumbledore’s puppet had come much further than he had ever expected … too far …”_ – Again we see Voldemort’s arrogance, believing he was the only one who was able to discover all of Hogwarts’s secrets. The Chamber of course was designed in a way that only someone who could speak Parseltongue could open it – only the true Heir of Slytherin. So you can see the irony in Ron opening the Chamber – neither a Slytherin nor someone who speaks Parseltongue. Clever and cunning of course are attributes attached to Slytherins – but Harry always had a bit of Slytherin in himself, he has never been a model student. I wonder if Voldemort had ever found out that Harry could speak Parseltongue as well – the ghost of Tom Riddle, trapped in the diary, had, but as it seems Voldemort is no longer connected to the pieces of his souls hidden inside Horcruxes. Then again he knows that Harry back then had destroyed the diary, so he might have figured it out already.


  * _“‘If your son is dead, Lucius, it is not my fault. He did not come and join me, like the rest of the Slytherins. Perhaps he has decided to befriend Harry Potter?’ ‘No – never,’ whispered Malfoy. ‘You must hope not.’”_ – Again Draco’s loyalty is questioned, this time by Voldemort himself. Which, of course, means that we as readers are meant to question Draco’s true motives as well.


  * _“‘He doesn’t think he needs to fight,’ said Harry. ‘He thinks I’m going to go to him.’ ‘But why?’ ‘He knows I’m after Horcruxes – he’s keeping Nagini close beside him – obviously I’m going to have to go to him to get near the thing –’”_ – I’m not sure Voldemort thinks Harry has figured out Nagini is another Horcrux, though he keeps her close as a precaution (making it even more obvious how valuable Nagini is). He thinks Harry will come to him simply to stop the battle, to stop anyone else from dying for him, that he would rather sacrifice himself. He is not entirely wrong – Harry does sacrifice himself so nobody else will die, but he also does it because it is the only way to stop Voldemort, and that is what Voldemort had no seen coming. He thinks that Harry’s love, his willingness to even give his own life, is his greatest weakness, when instead it is his greatest strength.


  * _“‘Get back!’ shouted Ron, and he, Harry and Hermione flattened themselves against a door as a herd of galloping desks thundered past, shepherded by a sprinting Professor McGonagall. She appeared not to notice them: her hair had come down and there was a gash on her cheek. As she turned the corner, they heard her scream: ‘CHARGE!’”_ – Wish they would have included that scene in the movie adaption as well, to be honest.


  * _“‘I’m Draco Malfoy, I’m Draco, I’m on your side!’ Draco was on the upper landing, pleading with another masked Death Eater. Harry Stunned the Death Eater as they passed: Malfoy looked around, beaming, for his saviour, and Ron punched him from under the Cloak. Malfoy fell backwards on top of the Death Eater, his mouth bleeding, utterly bemused. ‘And that’s the second time we’ve saved your life tonight, you two-faced bastard!’ Ron yelled.”_ – Draco is by now wandless again. The question is why would he plead with another Death Eater? Are they doubting Draco’s loyalty as well? Why does he have to insist they are on the same side? And even Ron calls him two-faced. I wonder if Draco thought his father or mother had come to rescue him. And the question still remains why he had not left the castle like his fellow Slytherins? Do hand over Harry personally, making up for his family mistakes? Or to try and help Harry and the others?


  * _“‘NO!’ shrieked Hermione, and with a deafening blast from her wand Fenrir Greyback was thrown backwards from the feebly stirring body of Lavender Brown. He hit the marble banisters and struggled to return to his feet. Then, with a bright white flash and a crack, a crystal ball fell on the top of his head and he crumpled to the ground and did not move. ‘I have more!’ shrieked Professor Trelawney from over the banisters, ‘more for any who want them! Here –’”_ – First of all the fate of Lavender remains open. Her feebly stirring body suggests she might be dead, but we don’t know for sure (and personally I would like to believe she did survive). Second I think it is rather interesting who are the people who try to help her. Lavender had always been a favourite of Professor Trelawney, so of course she would help her. The relationship between Hermione and Lavender had always been much more complicated. They had never been friends, and then at some point rivals for Ron’s attention. But none of this matters anymore, it is trivial in the face of death. And then of course Hermione herself had been in the center of Greyback’s attention, so she knows the absolute horror Lavender is going through.


  * _“‘HAGRID, COME BACK!’ But he was not even halfway to Hagrid when he saw it happen: Hagrid vanished amongst the spiders, and with a great scurrying, a foul swarming movement, they retreated under the onslaught of spells, Hagrid buried in their midst.”_ – We know of course that Hagrid will survive, but his habit to think of dangerous creatures as misunderstood harmless animals is biting him in the ass (literary). The only reason the acromantulas did not hurt Hagrid before was because they acted on Aragog’s orders, but since he is gone Hagrid is as much prey to them as everyone else. The ongoing battle is like a giant feast to them. They are not political, they don’t choose a side (besides their intelligence), they only want to eat.


  * _“‘Come on, Harry!’ said Hermione’s voice, from a very long way away, ‘Patronuses, Harry, come on!’ He raised his wand, but a dull hopelessness was spreading through him: Fred was gone, and Hagrid was surely dying or already dead; how many more lay dead that he did not yet know about; he felt as though his soul had already half left his body … […]And then a silver hare, a boar and a fox soared past Harry, Ron and Hermione’s heads: the Dementors fell back before the creatures’ approach. Three more people had arrived out of the darkness to stand beside them, their wands outstretched, continuing to cast their Patronuses: Luna, Ernie and Seamus.”_ – I think this is the only time since he learned the spell that Harry was not able to produce a Patronus. He has lost all hope, his mind is filled with the people he had lost and the ones he is afraid he will lose next. And for once Harry is the one being saved, by Luna, Ernie and Seamus, the ones he taught at the DA, who are as ready to risk their lives for him as he is for them.


  * _“‘How – how’re we going to get in?’ panted Ron. ‘I can – see the place – if we just had – Crookshanks again –’ ‘Crookshanks?’ wheezed Hermione, bent double, clutching her chest. ‘Are you a wizard, or what? ’ ‘Oh – right – yeah –’ Ron looked around, then directed his wand at a twig on the ground and said, ‘Wingardium Leviosa!’”_ – I see what you did there. And I like it.


  * _“The room beyond was dimly lit, but he could see Nagini, swirling and coiling like a serpent underwater, safe in her enchanted, starry sphere, which floated unsupported in mid-air. He could see the edge of a table, and a long-fingered, white hand toying with a wand. Then Snape spoke, and Harry’s heart lurched: Snape was inches away from where he crouched, hidden.”_ – Isn’t it ironic though, that Harry is this close to Voldemort, who wants nothing more than to kill him, and yet Voldemort is completely unaware of Harry’s proximity. You would think a wizard as powerful as he is could sense another wizard, and even more another Horcrux, another piece of his soul. But Voldemort is completely cut off from anyone, living or dead, and even his own soul. He is utterly alone.


  * _“And for a moment Harry saw Snape’s profile: his eyes were fixed upon the coiling snake in its enchanted cage. ‘No, my Lord, but I beg you will let me return. Let me find Potter.’ ‘You sound like Lucius. Neither of you understands Potter as I do. He does not need finding. Potter will come to me. I know his weakness, you see, his one great flaw. He will hate watching the others struck down around him, knowing that it is for him that it happens. He will want to stop it at any cost. He will come.’”_ – First of all Snape of course knows that Nagini is a Horcrux, so the fact that all of sudden Voldemort keeps her close and created extra protection for her is a warning sign. Snape suspects that Voldemort somehow found out that someone is after the Horcruxes, though he does not know how much Voldemort knows and whether or not he knows about Snape’s involvement. Second, Snape insists on going back to Hogwarts and finding Harry, repeatedly. He already knows by now that he is in danger somehow. And he needs to find Harry to pass him the vital information that he is another Horcrux, that he has to sacrifice himself in order to defeat Voldemort. Perhaps he even wants to help Harry somehow. And lastly Voldemort thinks Harry will come to him because he can’t bear the thought of others dying for him, but secretly he might know that Harry will try to get to him because he somehow found out about Nagini, and this is the only way to kill her.


  * _“‘I sought a third wand, Severus. The Elder Wand, the Wand of Destiny, the Deathstick. I took it from its previous master. I took it from the grave of Albus Dumbledore.’ And now Snape looked at Voldemort, and Snape’s face was like a death mask. It was marble white and so still that when he spoke it was a shock to see that anyone lived behind the blank eyes.”_ – And that, my friends, is the moment Snape knows he is completely fucked.


  * _“‘The Elder Wand cannot serve me properly, Severus, because I am not its true master. The Elder Wand belongs to the wizard who killed its last owner. You killed Albus Dumbledore. While you live, Severus, the Elder Wand cannot be truly mine.’”_ – Voldemort of course would think you can only become the true master of the Elder Wand by killing its previous owner. That you can only own something if you forcefully take it away. It is obvious that Voldemort does not know that Draco disarmed Dumbledore before Snape killed him, because such a detail would have been to no interest for him. And yet in the end Voldemort gets defeated twice by the Expelliarmus Charm (three times if you count the graveyard in book 4), one time by Draco and one time by Harry himself.


  * _“‘I regret it,’ said Voldemort coldly. He turned away; there was no sadness in him, no remorse.”_ – Voldemort is simply unable to show remorse or feel regret. It is the reason he can’t put his soul back together and can’t be saved in the end.


  * _“He did not know why he was doing it, why he was approaching the dying man: he did not know what he felt as he saw Snape’s white face, and the fingers trying to staunch the bloody wound at his neck. Harry took off the Invisibility Cloak and looked down upon the man he hated, whose widening black eyes found Harry as he tried to speak. Harry bent over him; and Snape seized the front of his robes and pulled him close.”_ – There isn’t exactly a good reason why Harry would approach the dying Snape, other than that the plot demands it. Harry is not the one to gloat, despite his hate for Snape. Perhaps it is instinct, perhaps it is a gut feeling, telling him that this is where he needs to be.


  * _“‘Look … at … me …’ he whispered. The green eyes found the black, but after a second something in the depths of the dark pair seemed to vanish, leaving them fixed, blank and empty. The hand holding Harry thudded to the floor, and Snape moved no more.”_ – This moment obviously makes only sense if we consider that Harry has inherited his mother’s eyes and everything we will learn in the following chapter about the complicated relationship between Snape and Lily. Which I think is not romantic at all, so prepare yourself.




	33. Chapter 33: The Prince’s Tale

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 33: The Prince’s Tale**

  * This is of course the most Snape-centric chapter. He has always been one of the most ambiguous multi-layered characters, leading to speculations whether he is good or not, and this chapter is telling us the truth, in more than one way. Those who had always been sure he is secretly a hero have been confirmed in their view, some who had been indifferent might have changed the way they look at Snape. I have always greatly disliked Snape for multiple reasons, and if you have read my chapters notes so far, you know that I never made a secret out of that. And there is nothing that we learn about Snape in this chapter that will change that really. There is nothing romantic, nothing heroic about him, not to me at least. Fair warning.


  * _“‘I speak now, Harry Potter, directly to you. You have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourself. I shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden Forest. If, at the end of that hour, you have not come to me, have not given yourself up, then battle recommences. This time, I shall enter the fray myself, Harry Potter, and I shall find you, and I shall punish every last man, woman and child who has tried to conceal you from me. One hour.’”_ – Obviously Voldemort knows Harry’s weak spot, knows how unbearable the thought for Harry is that others die for him, and that this is the way to make him surrender. To sacrifice himself, so nobody else has to die tonight.


  * _“As Ginny and Hermione moved closer to the rest of the family, Harry had a clear view of the bodies lying next to Fred: Remus and Tonks, pale and still and peaceful-looking, apparently asleep beneath the dark, enchanted ceiling. The Great Hall seemed to fly away, become smaller, shrink, as Harry reeled backwards from the doorway. He could not draw breath. He could not bear to look at any of the other bodies, to see who else had died for him. He could not bear to join the Weasleys, could not look into their eyes, when if he had given himself up in the first place, Fred might never have died … He turned away and ran up the marble staircase. Lupin, Tonks … he yearned not to feel … he wished he could rip out his heart, his innards, everything that was screaming inside him …”_ – This of course is exactly what Voldemort was talking about, Harry feeling responsible for every single death that has happened that night (or more so in the last years, from Cedric to Sirius to Dumbledore). With the dead of both Lupin and Tonks Rowling created a mirror, we started the story with an orphan who had lost his parents during the war and this is how we end. Teddy Lupin wil grow up without his parents, just like Harry did, though of course he never has to sleep in the cupboard under the stairs. Of course both Lupin and Tonks felt that they had to help during this battle, both members of the Order and Tonks being an Auror on top of that. I always felt that Lupin tried to redeem himself that way, to do something good, to make up for the monster he becomes regularly. It was also obvious that Tonks was there to help her husband, afraid that he might get hurt, or worse. Of course one could argue that it would have been better if one of them had stayed behind, for their son. They felt a responsibility for both their son as well as seeing the bigger picture, that they were fighting for a better world, a world where their son could live in peace.


  * _“The stone Pensieve lay in the cabinet where it had always been: Harry heaved it on to the desk and poured Snape’s memories into the wide basin with its runic markings around the edge. To escape into someone else’s head would be a blessed relief … nothing that even Snape had left him could be worse than his own thoughts.”_ – Yeah, I don’t think so.


  * _“Two girls were swinging backwards and forwards, and a skinny boy was watching them from behind a clump of bushes. His black hair was overlong and his clothes were so mismatched that it looked deliberate: too-short jeans, a shabby, overlarge coat that might have belonged to a grown man, an odd smock-like shirt.”_ – Snape’s outfit is either a product of neglect, a sign that nobody really cares about his appearance, or Harry is right in his assumption that this outfit is deliberate, that perhaps the overlong coat is the closest young Snape could find that looks like a Wizard’s robe.


  * _“Harry moved closer to the boy. Snape looked no more than nine or ten years old, sallow, small, stringy. There was undisguised greed in his thin face as he watched the younger of the two girls swinging higher and higher than her sister.”_ – Even as a child there is something creepy about Snape. He clearly stalks Lily, has so for a while, and as Harry notices he looks greedy, like he wants to own her. Or maybe he just wants to belong somewhere or to someone. Still there is a difference between young Snape and the child Harry used to be, even though they both grew up in abusive households.


  * _“‘No!’ said Snape. He was highly coloured now, and Harry wondered why he did not take off the ridiculously large coat, unless it was because he did not want to reveal the smock beneath it. He flapped after the girls, looking ludicrously bat-like, like his older self.”_ – Or perhaps he used the coat to cover up bruises. The Dursleys somehow always had drawn the line at physical abuse (though it had been implied with Harry’s ability to duck at the right moment), but that does not mean Snape’s father had never hit him.


  * _“‘Does it make a difference, being Muggle-born?’ Snape hesitated. His black eyes, eager in the greenish gloom, moved over the pale face, the dark red hair. ‘No,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t make any difference.’ ‘Good,’ said Lily, relaxing: it was clear that she had been worrying.”_ – Except that it does, at least for Snape. Who made it obvious previous that he had no interest spending time with Petunia because she is a Muggle and who despises his father, who does not understand and does not belong in the world of his wife and son, and reacts in anger. To Snape Hogwarts is an escape, it is the place where he truly belongs, where he no longer is an outsider. His obsession with Lily is based on the fact that she is just like him, that she does not belong in the world of Muggles either. Still, Lily, unlike Snape, loves her family, her parents and sister, there is no need for her to escape. She is worried she might not fit in, knowing so little about this other world. If Snape would have been honest he would have told her that it makes a difference to him, that he considers her less because of her heritage. He always makes an exception for Lily, but for nobody else like her. We can understand why he hates Muggles, seeing his family background, and yet… Harry grew up in an abusive Muggle family as well, he had as much reason to hate Muggles, he saw Hogwarts as his escape just the way Snape did, but he grew up much different, made different choices. Of course Snape being sorted in Slytherin did not help, where all his underlying ideas about Muggles and Muggleborns would only get support.


  * It is also interesting to see the way Lily and Petunia interacted before Lily left for Hogwarts. They were close, they loved each other, and a lot of Petunia’s hate considering all things magic is born from the feeling of being left behind, of being nothing special, unlike her sisters. She is fascinated by what Lily can do, she even wrote a letter to Dumbledore, begging to go to Hogwarts as well. But once it was clear that she could not she turned her feelings of being left behind in anger. Her sister was no longer special but a freak. It was her way to deal with the situation, a childish reaction that never changed. And in the end it was the Wizarding World as well who ultimately took her sister from her; it was another wizard who had killed her sister. So much of Petunia’s hate is born out of love; love for her sisters who left her behind and never returned.


  * _“One of the boys sharing the compartment, who had shown no interest at all in Lily or Snape until that point, looked round at the word, and Harry, whose attention had been focused entirely on the two beside the window, saw his father: slight, black-haired like Snape, but with that indefinable air of having been well cared for, even adored, that Snape so conspicuously lacked.”_ – I wonder if Harry had turned out to be a bit more like his father if he had been raised by his parents. Perhaps a bit spoiled, even a bit arrogant. Though Lily obviously would have told him off every time he acted a bit too much like his father.


  * _“‘I didn’t mean – I just don’t want to see you made a fool of – he fancies you, James Potter fancies you!’ The words seemed wrenched from him against his will. ‘And he’s not … Everyone thinks … Big Quidditch hero –’ Snape’s bitterness and dislike were rendering him incoherent, and Lily’s eyebrows were travelling further and further up her forehead. ‘I know James Potter’s an arrogant toerag,’ she said, cutting across Snape. ‘I don’t need you to tell me that. But Mulciber and Avery’s idea of humour is just evil. Evil, Sev. I don’t understand how you can be friends with them.’ Harry doubted that Snape had even heard her strictures on Mulciber and Avery. The moment she had insulted James Potter, his whole body had relaxed, and as they walked away there was a new spring in Snape’s step …”_ – I wonder if Lily was aware that Snape as well fancied her. It is obvious and I think she is smart enough to see that, to interpret his jealousy in the right way. But there is no sign that she ever returned his affection, at least nothing more than friendship. She looks down on James based on his arrogance, but also admits that at least he doesn’t use Dark Magic, unlike the people Snape calls friends. Lily had a very strong moral commitment. She didn’t started dating James until he had changed, became less arrogant. It doesn’t really matter if she ever felt more than just friendship for Snape, as long as he surrounded himself with soon-to-be Death Eaters she would not have dated him on principle.


  * _“But Harry kept his distance this time, because he knew what happened after James had hoisted Severus into the air and taunted him; he knew what had been done and said, and it gave him no pleasure to hear it again. He watched, as Lily joined the group and went to Snape’s defence. Distantly he heard Snape shout at her in his humiliation and his fury, the unforgivable word: ‘Mudblood.’”_ – I already wrote about this particular memory in my chapter notes for book 5. The chapter has the title “Snape’s worst memory” and it is indeed his worst memory, but not because of the humiliation he had to endure, but because the moment he had called Lily a ‘Mudblood’ their friendship was over. Harry was lacking the context the first time he saw the memory, he did not know that Lily and Snape used to be friends, that Snape had loved her. Now he understands the full meaning of it.


  * _“‘Slipped out?’ There was no pity in Lily’s voice. ‘It’s too late. I’ve made excuses for you for years. None of my friends can understand why I even talk to you. You and your precious little Death Eater friends – you see, you don’t even deny it! You don’t even deny that’s what you’re all aiming to be! You can’t wait to join You-Know-Who, can you?’ He opened his mouth, but closed it without speaking. ‘I can’t pretend any more. You’ve chosen your way, I’ve chosen mine.’ ‘No – listen, I didn’t mean –’ ‘– to call me Mudblood? But you call everyone of my birth Mudblood, Severus. Why should I be any different?’”_ – Lily had understood Snape’s true nature. He made an exception for her, but for nobody else. And the question is if this is then true genuine love? Because it looks like Snape overlooked something he considered a flaw in Lily, something she obviously was not responsible for (her heritage), but at the same time he despised everybody else for it. He fell for Lily because she was the first witch he had ever met (despite his mother), because she was beautiful and kind to him. But if their ways had not crossed before Hogwarts he would not have treated her any different than he treats every other Muggleborn.


  * _“‘If she means so much to you,’ said Dumbledore, ‘surely Lord Voldemort will spare her? Could you not ask for mercy for the mother, in exchange for the son?’ ‘I have – I have asked him –’ ‘You disgust me,’ said Dumbledore, and Harry had never heard so much contempt in his voice. Snape seemed to shrink a little. ‘You do not care, then, about the deaths of her husband and child? They can die, as long as you have what you want?’”_ – And this exactly is the reason why I can’t see Snape as a hero, why I can’t see anything remotely romantic about his love for Lily or his actions. If he would truly love her he would care about her child as well, even her husband, for this is the man she loves. But he only cares about her, no matter if the death of her child and husband would ruin her, as long as Snape can still have her. It is an obsession, it is greed. This is not true love.


  * _“‘And what use would that be to anyone?’ said Dumbledore coldly. ‘If you loved Lily Evans, if you truly loved her, then your way forward is clear.’ Snape seemed to peer through a haze of pain, and Dumbledore’s words appeared to take a long time to reach him. ‘What – what do you mean?’ ‘You know how and why she died. Make sure it was not in vain. Help me protect Lily’s son.’”_ – Dumbledore of course remembers that Snape initially was only interested in saving Lily, before he agreed in protecting them all. He knows how to choose his words, to get Snape to help him. Dumbledore is right – loving someone truly is about more than just the person. True love in this case means also protecting Lily’s son, who she gave her life for. Love is about choices – you don’t just choose the person you love, but everyone they love as well. Dumbledore perhaps had his doubts if Snape cared about Harry, especially now that Lily is dead, so he makes it all about her. Her sacrifice, her son. Loving Lily means loving Harry as well.


  * _“At last he said, ‘Very well. Very well. But never – never tell, Dumbledore! This must be between us! Swear it! I cannot bear … especially Potter’s son … I want your word!’ ‘My word, Severus, that I shall never reveal the best of you?’ Dumbledore sighed, looking down into Snape’s ferocious, anguished face. ‘If you insist …’”_ – Snape, just as Voldemort, perhaps considered love a weakness, even though all his actions from now on are based on his love for Lily. He doesn’t want anyone to know, perhaps out of protection, but also because some part of him is ashamed for his feelings, for what they have done to him.


  * _“‘Lord Voldemort foresees a moment in the near future when he will not need a spy at Hogwarts?’ ‘He believes the school will soon be in his grasp, yes.’ ‘And if it does fall into his grasp,’ said Dumbledore, almost, it seemed, as an aside, ‘I have your word that you will do all in your power to protect the students of Hogwarts?’ Snape gave a stiff nod.”_ – I’m not sure Snape did such a good job at protecting the students of Hogwarts, considering they regularly got tortured. Of course he had to walk a thin line: if he had protested too much Voldemort might had gotten suspicious. So perhaps he draw the line at ‘as long as they don’t die’.


  * _“‘If you don’t mind dying,’ said Snape roughly, ‘why not let Draco do it?’ ‘That boy’s soul is not yet so damaged,’ said Dumbledore. ‘I would not have it ripped apart on my account.’ ‘And my soul, Dumbledore? Mine?’ ‘You alone know whether it will harm your soul to help an old man avoid pain and humiliation,’ said Dumbledore. ‘I ask this one, great favour of you, Severus, because death is coming for me as surely as the Chudley Cannons will finish bottom of this year’s league. I confess I should prefer a quick, painless exit to the protracted and messy affair it will be if, for instance, Greyback is involved – I hear Voldemort has recruited him? Or dear Bellatrix, who likes to play with her food before she eats it.’”_ – We learn that Dumbledore had, through the curse set on the Gaunt ring, only one year left to live. He had known that he would die, just as he had known that Draco had been given the task to kill him. Yet he had arranged the manner of his death. He wanted Snape to kill him, knowing that this murder would damage Snape far less than Draco. Snape was aware that Dumbledore would die anyway and that he would prefer a quick, painless death. It was an act of mercy. And then of course Dumbledore wanted Snape to be the owner of the Elder Wand, rather than Draco or anybody else. Did he suspected that Voldemort would be after the wand? That by making sure Snape kills him Snape would have a death sentence over his head as well? Or did he hope that nobody else would be looking for the Elder Wand, that the secret would die with Snape one day?


  * _“‘Tell him that on the night Lord Voldemort tried to kill him, when Lily cast her own life between them as a shield, the Killing Curse rebounded upon Lord Voldemort, and a fragment of Voldemort’s soul was blasted apart from the whole, and latched itself on to the only living soul left in that collapsing building. Part of Lord Voldemort lives inside Harry, and it is that which gives him the power of speech with snakes, and a connection with Lord Voldemort’s mind that he has never understood. And while that fragment of soul, unmissed by Voldemort, remains attached to, and protected by Harry, Lord Voldemort cannot die.’ Harry seemed to be watching the two men from one end of a long tunnel, they were so far away from him, their voices echoing strangely in his ears. ‘So the boy … the boy must die?’ asked Snape, quite calmly. ‘And Voldemort himself must do it, Severus. That is essential.’”_ – I remember reading a theory before the release of book 7 over the possibility that Harry himself could be a Horcrux, giving exactly these evidences, that he speaks Parseltongue, that he has a connection to Voldemort’s mind etc. These theory was good, it made sense, yet I refused to believe it, knowing that it would mean Harry has to die. I feared most that I would not get the happy ending I wanted, that my favourite character had to die.


  * _“‘I have spied for you, and lied for you, put myself in mortal danger for you. Everything was supposed to be to keep Lily Potter’s son safe. Now you tell me you have been raising him like a pig for slaughter –’ ‘But this is touching, Severus,’ said Dumbledore seriously. ‘Have you grown to care for the boy, after all?’ ‘For him?’ shouted Snape. ‘Expecto patronum!’ From the tip of his wand burst the silver doe: she landed on the office floor, bounded once across the office and soared out of the window. Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears. ‘After all this time?’ ‘Always,’ said Snape.”_ – I know that a lot of people see this scene as overly romantic, but I don’t. Snape makes it clear here that he does not care about Harry himself, never has, but only about Lily. All of his actions have been for, nobody else. He did not do it simply because it is the right thing to do, but out of a misguided love for Lily. If it had been Neville Voldemort had chosen Snape could not have cared less.


  * _“Snape took the page bearing Lily’s signature, and her love, and tucked it inside his robes. Then he ripped in two the photograph he was also holding, so that he kept the part from which Lily laughed, throwing the portion showing James and Harry back on to the floor, under the chest of drawers …”_ – This moment tells you everything you need to know. He cared about Lily, but nothing else, not her son nor her husband, ripping the photograph in two to pretend Harry and James were never part of Lily’s life.


  * _“‘Headmaster! They are camping in the Forest of Dean! The Mudblood –’ ‘Do not use that word!’ ‘– the Granger girl, then, mentioned the place as she opened her bag and I heard her!’”_ – I think Snape’s dislike of the word ‘Mudblood’ is simply based on the painful memory it brings, and perhaps Hermione even reminded him a bit of Lily, Muggleborn and incredibly gifted. But Snape never truly cared about Hermione, don’t be mistaken.


  * From the memories it is clear that while Dumbledore gave Snape the valuable information that Harry contains a bit of Voldemort’s soul in himself, he did not tell him about the Horcruxes. He does not tell him why Harry needs the sword of Gryffindor (but we learn that it had to be taken under conditions of need and valour) and why Nagini is important. He told Snape everything he needs to know, but nothing more, knowing how close Snape is to Voldemort. Harry of course would be able to interpret these information in the right way. It is also interesting to see which memory Snape chose to show Harry (though I wonder if it was a deliberate choice considering that he did it in the moment of his death). He gave Harry the context to understand his actions, he gave Harry the knowledge about his and Lily’s relationship, the motivation for his actions. And yet the memories don’t paint him in a positive picture. They show that he only cared about Lily, not her son or husband. Perhaps Snape did not care what Harry would think about him, perhaps he simply wanted to show the truth, even it was ugly. Perhaps it was simply one great act to come clean.




	34. Chapter 34: The Forest Again

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Chapter 34: The Forest Again**

  * This is, without a doubt, the saddest chapter of all. I vividly remember the moment I read it for the first time, late at night alone in the living room, after binge-reading my way through the final book, and I remember, that for the very first time, I had to cry while reading, and that I needed some time to compose myself before I could continue reading. Harry had always been my favourite character, and I have read the books so many times over the years that all those characters felt very close to me, like they were a part of me. I could not handle the prospect of Harry. This was not the kind of ending I wanted to see. He needed to live. After everything he went through, everything he had to endure, he deserved his happy ending. After all he was only seventeen, just about to start life. It was cruel that he of all people should sacrifice himself, that this unbearable responsibility should lay on his shoulders. I also think that in this chapter is some of Rowling’s best writing. If I had to name a favourite chapter from all the Potter books, it would be this.


  * _“Finally, the truth. Lying with his face pressed into the dusty carpet of the office where he had once thought he was learning the secrets of victory, Harry understood at last that he was not supposed to survive. His job was to walk calmly into Death’s welcoming arms. […]He felt his heart pounding fiercely in his chest. How strange that in his dread of death, it pumped all the harder, valiantly keeping him alive. But it would have to stop, and soon. Its beats were numbered. How many would there be time for, as he rose and walked through the castle for the last time, out into the grounds and into the Forest? Terror washed over him as he lay on the floor, with that funeral drum pounding inside him. Would it hurt to die? All those times he had thought that it was about to happen and escaped, he had never really thought of the thing itself: his will to live had always been so much stronger than his fear of death. Yet it did not occur to him now to try to escape, to outrun Voldemort. It was over, he knew it, and all that was left was the thing itself: dying.”_ – I already wrote multiple times about Harry’s strange fascination with Death, how for example he was drawn to the Veil in the Ministry of Magic, how the Hallow that fascinated him most was the Ring of Resurrection (which scared Hermione). There was always something about Death that felt almost familiar to Harry, a side of Harry neither Hermione nor Ron could ever understand. And yet, Harry does not want to die. He is not naïve. He started this journey of destroying Horcruxes, of ultimately beating Voldemort, with the knowledge that he might die. Yet this feels different. This is him slowly walking towards his death. This is him realizing that Dumbledore never planned for him to survive, that the months of training only happened so Harry could die at the right moment. And Dumbledore of course knew that Harry would not hesitate. That he would do what he has to do, to save everyone he has ever loved. It is the kind of bravery only few people show. Harry wants to live, desperately. He is scared. And yet he walks in the Forrest. He does want nobody else could do.


  * _“Ron and Hermione seemed a long way away, in a far-off country; he felt as though he had parted from them long ago. There would be no goodbyes and no explanations, he was determined of that. This was a journey they could not take together, and the attempts they would make to stop him would waste valuable time.”_ – In the book the only person Harry talks to before he goes into the Forrest is Neville, and only to make sure somebody else knows that Nagini needs to be killed. He does not say goodbye to Ron, Hermione or Ginny. In the movie adaption however he sees Ron and Hermione one last time and Hermione of course has figured it out, and knows what Harry is about to do. I always had my problem with this particular scene. I could not imagine Ron and Hermione letting Harry go, letting him sacrifice itself. The only possible interpretation is Hermione looking at the bigger picture, realizing that the lives of all are more important than one (Harry’s). Still, she would have tried to find another solution, I am sure. I find the book version better, Harry deciding not to say goodbye, not trying to explain himself, because he knows he would not have the strength otherwise to do what he has to do.


  * _“Then Neville nearly walked into him. He was one half of a pair that was carrying a body in from the grounds. Harry glanced down, and felt another dull blow to his stomach: Colin Creevey, though under-age, must have sneaked back just as Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle had done. He was tiny in death.”_ – This is to me had always been the worst character death. I don’t know why, I was never particular fond of Colin as a character. But he was only sixteen, and I always imagined how his father, a milkman, had to learn about his death, in this far off school, in the middle of a war he did not understand. Breaks my heart.


  * _“But he pulled himself together again: this was crucial, he must be like Dumbledore, keep a cool head, make sure there were back-ups, others to carry on. Dumbledore had died knowing that three people still knew about the Horcruxes; now Neville would take Harry’s place: there would still be three in the secret.”_ – I feel that this is very symbolic. On the one hand the number three, but also Neville taking Harry’s place. Neville, who almost became the Chosen One, whose destiny is tied so closely to Harry’s, even if he doesn’t know this. (And I wonder if Harry after the war ever told him, that the prophecy could have been about him as well)


  * _“Ripples of cold undulated over Harry’s skin. He wanted to shout out to the night, he wanted Ginny to know that he was there, he wanted her to know where he was going. He wanted to be stopped, to be dragged back, to be sent back home … But he was home. Hogwarts was the first and best home he had known. He and Voldemort and Snape, the abandoned boys, had all found home here …”_ – Harry has no home other than Hogwarts, he has no family waiting for him, besides the people who are already here. There is no other sanctuary waiting for him than this place and these people, that he tries to protect. And he sees the similarities between himself and Voldemort and Snape, those abandoned boys, who all found a home in Hogwarts, though Harry might be the only one who also found a family here as well. And that is what makes him different, the people he loves, and who love him in return, and the lengths they would go for each other. That is the reason why Harry makes all those different choices, and that is why he is doing now what he has to do.


  * _“The Snitch. His nerveless fingers fumbled for a moment with the pouch at his neck and he pulled it out. I open at the close. Breathing fast and hard, he stared down at it. Now that he wanted time to move as slowly as possible, it seemed to have sped up, and understanding was coming so fast it seemed to have bypassed thought. This was the close. This was the moment. He pressed the golden metal to his lips and whispered, ‘I am about to die.’ The metal shell broke open. […]And again, Harry understood, without having to think. It did not matter about bringing them back, for he was about to join them. He was not really fetching them: they were fetching him.”_ – First, it is good that Harry thinks in Quudditch terms, otherwise he probably would have forgotten about the Snitch. Second, the entire following moment, where Harry is reunited with his loved ones, always gets me. And it is, as he realizes, not about bringing the dead back, but rather about them bringing comfort to Harry, guiding him, protecting him, waiting for him. Dumbledore himself was tempted to use the Ring (and paid the price), but he understood that it is impossible to bring back the dead. This is about something else. This is about Harry, on the brink of death, being welcomed by the ones beyond the veil.


  * _“Lily’s smile was widest of all. She pushed her long hair back as she drew close to him, and her green eyes, so like his, searched his face hungrily as though she would never be able to look at him enough. ‘You’ve been so brave.’ He could not speak. His eyes feasted on her, and he thought that he would like to stand and look at her forever, and that would be enough.”_ – I already wrote that there are some ways in the Wizarding World to bring back the dead in some form – as portraits, as ghosts, what happened at the graveyard etc. Yet this seems to be the closest to bringing somebody back fully. This feels like the genuine reaction of a mother, who had to leave her child behind, the sort of reunion you would perhaps imagine to happen in the afterlife. To understand how precious life is, to value every second you have together, and still knowing that it would never be enough.


  * _“‘Does it hurt?’ The childish question had fallen from Harry’s lips before he could stop it. ‘Dying? Not at all,’ said Sirius. ‘Quicker and easier than falling asleep.’”_ – I remember how my mother responded to that scene, how she said she doubted that dying would be as simple as that, quick and painless. This was shortly after my grandmother had passed, some years before my mother would die as well, and knowing what I know now I know what she means. Death is not quick. Death is not painless.


  * _“‘You’ll stay with me?’ ‘Until the very end,’ said James. ‘They won’t be able to see you?’ asked Harry. ‘We are part of you,’ said Sirius. ‘Invisible to anyone else.’ Harry looked at his mother. ‘Stay close to me,’ he said quietly.”_ – Harry has never really been allowed to be a child. Not with the Dursleys, not at Hogwarts. He has always been confronted with hard choices, to take responsibility for his actions, and he is doing now what most adults could not do. And yet in this moment he reminds me so much of a child, alone and scared, looking for comfort through his parents. And of course the reminder that everyone he has ever lost are now a part of him, that they are always with him, now quite literary. They protect him wherever he goes.


  * _“His body and mind felt oddly disconnected now, his limbs working without conscious instruction, as if he were passenger, not driver, in the body he was about to leave. The dead who walked beside him through the Forest were much more real to him now than the living back at the castle: Ron, Hermione, Ginny and all the others were the ones who felt like ghosts as he stumbled and slipped towards the end of his life, towards Voldemort …”_ – Harry is no longer part of the world of the living. He no longer belongs to the people he has left behind, the people he tries to protect. He is as much a ghost as the ones surrounding him. He belongs to them now.


  * _“Then a voice yelled – ‘HARRY! NO!’ He turned: Hagrid was bound and trussed, tied to a tree nearby. His massive body shook the branches overhead as he struggled, desperate. ‘NO! NO! HARRY, WHAT’RE YEH –?’ ‘QUIET!’ shouted Rowle, and with a flick of his wand Hagrid was silenced.”_ – That might be the worst part, that Hagrid had to watch while Voldemort killed Harry, that he had to carry his body back to the castle. Hagrid, who was the first wizard Harry ever met, who welcomed him to this strange new world, would become the one to watch Harry leave this world.




	35. Chapter 35: King’s Cross

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_  
**

**Chapter 35: King’s Cross**

  * This is perhaps the most surreal chapter of them all. And the most spiritual, because after all this is how Rowling imaged the afterlife would. Nothing, until it becomes something, but something else for everybody. And of course, despite Harry talking to Dumbledore (the one he longed to talk to all this time), ultimately this is all just happening inside his head. There is nobody else there. All these answers Dumbledore is giving him, is something Harry already knows deep down, something he has figured out on his own. He just needs another voice to present him these ideas. And Harry needs one last talk with his great mentor, the man who betrayed him, and who he loves still.


  * _“He recoiled. He had spotted the thing that was making the noises. It had the form of a small, naked child, curled on the ground, its skin raw and rough, flayed-looking, and it lay shuddering under a seat where it had been left, unwanted, stuffed out of sight, struggling for breath. He was afraid of it. Small and fragile and wounded though it was, he did not want to approach it. Nevertheless, he drew slowly nearer, ready to jump back at any moment. Soon he stood near enough to touch it, yet he could not bring himself to do it. He felt like a coward. He ought to comfort it, but it repulsed him.”_ – This is of course the piece of Voldemort’s soul that he accidently trapped inside Harry’s soul. Or at least how Harry imagine it would look like, which I think is a bit like the way Voldemort looked like before he regained his body. What is interesting is that part of Harry wants to help this creature, might even pity it, yet he can’t. It is beyond anyone’s help. But this is who Harry truly is, that even now his first instinct is to help this creature, that later he will offer Voldemort the chance for remorse. His first instinct is always to help, even those you can no longer help.


  * So, (and I hope I get this right) because Harry let himself killed, because he did not defend himself, Voldemort killed the part of his own soul, still attached to Harry’s soul, who is now completely his own soul. The reason Harry is still alive, despite someone dying for him this time, is because Voldemort took some of Lily’s protection the night he used Harry’s blood to restore his body, so while Voldemort still lives, Lily’s protection still lives, keeping Harry alive. And because Harry sacrificed himself for everyone else, he did the same thing as his mother, making sure Voldemort would not be able to kill anyone else that day. That is how it works, right?


  * _“Dumbledore smiled at Harry, and Harry stared at him. ‘And you knew this? You knew – all along?’ ‘I guessed. But my guesses have, usually, been good,’ said Dumbledore happily, and they sat in silence for what seemed like a long time, while the creature behind them continued to whimper and tremble.”_ – I know that book 7 changed many people’s view on Dumbledore, especially after they found out that he knew all along that Harry was another Horcrux, that he has to die, and that he raised him and taught him, just so he could die at the right moment. I don’t know if this enough to redeem him, that Dumbledore secretly guessed that Harry would survive. If Voldemort would have found a different way to get his body back, one that would not have involved drinking Harry’s blood, Harry still had to die, but without someone anchoring him to the world of the living. Voldemort still would not have been able to touch Harry, but I guessed he could have killed Harry, as Lily’s protection would not work a second time. Harry’s survival therefore is based on a mistake Voldemort made, it is not part of Dumbledore’s plan. Dumbledore of course understood how crucial this mistake was, that there would be a loophole that could guarantee Harry’s survival. He guessed it and his guesses are usual right. I don’t doubt that Dumbledore felt remorse for what he had to do, what Harry had to do, that he wanted to find some way for Harry to still survive. But if things would have happened different he would have still sent Harry to death, because there was never any other option.


  * _“‘King’s Cross station!’ Dumbledore was chuckling immoderately. ‘Good gracious, really?’ ‘Well, where do you think we are?’ asked Harry, a little defensively. ‘My dear boy, I have no idea. This is, as they say, your party.’”_ – The Afterlife looks different to everyone, to Harry however it looks like King’s Cross Station, which would make sense. This is where he would left for Hogwarts every year, the train that brings him home. Where he leaves one world behind to get to another. Which is very fitting considering his status at the moment. He is between the world of the living and the dead. He can stay, or as Dumbledore says, he can move on.


  * _“‘Would I?’ asked Dumbledore heavily. ‘I am not so sure. I had proven, as a very young man, that power was my weakness and my temptation. It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well.”_ – Power can corrupt, even someone like Dumbledore. And perhaps it is true, perhaps those are best suited for power who do not want it, but are given it anyway. However in reality this hardly ever happens. Power belongs to those who take it and often refuse to give it up, even when or especially when the prove not to be suited for it.


  * _“‘You are very kind, Harry. But while I busied myself with the training of young wizards, Grindelwald was raising an army. They say he feared me, and perhaps he did, but less, I think, than I feared him. ‘Oh, not death,’ said Dumbledore, in answer to Harry’s questioning look. ‘Not what he could do to me magically. I knew that we were evenly matched, perhaps that I was a shade more skilful. It was the truth I feared. You see, I never knew which of us, in that last, horrific fight, had actually cast the curse that killed my sister. You may call me cowardly: you would be right. Harry, I dreaded beyond all things the knowledge that it had been I who brought about her death, not merely through my arrogance and stupidity, but that I actually struck the blow that snuffed out her life.”_ – It is not just Ariana’s death that brought Dumbledore to shame (though that might be the main reason). I think it is his own knowledge that when it comes to Grindelwald Dumbledore was blind. That deep down he knew what kind of man he was, and yet he refused to acknowledge it, yet he brought this dangerous man in his home, to his family. Of course it is not book canon that Dumbledore was gay and in love with Grindelwald, but it would further explain his fear to meet him again, to be confronted with his own weakness, that ultimately lead to his sister’s death.


  * _“The stone I would have used in an attempt to drag back those who are at peace, rather than to enable my self-sacrifice, as you did. You are the worthy possessor of the Hallows.’”_ – Harry understands why Dumbledore used the ring, that he wanted to see his family again. Out of guilt, to say sorry, but perhaps also to be forgiven, to redeem himself in their eyes. Harry used the Ring so his loved ones you spend him comfort, so they would him do what he had to do. To Dumbledore this is the far more selfless reason.


  * _“You are the true master of death, because the true master does not seek to run away from Death. He accepts that he must die, and understands that there are far, far worse things in the living world than dying.’”_ – By the time of his death Harry is the Master of Death, he owns all three Hallows. And yet he does not use them to beat Death, to defend himself. It is as Dumbledore says, Harry has accepted death, knowing there are worse things in life, a lesson Voldemort has never been able to learn.


  * _“‘If you planned your death with Snape, you meant him to end up with the Elder Wand, didn’t you?’ ‘I admit that was my intention,’ said Dumbledore, ‘but it did not work as I intended, did it?’”_ – Dumbledore was sure that Voldemort in time would try to get the Elder Wand, the Unbeatable Wand, the Deathstick, in order to kill Harry. So if he meant for Snape to get his wand, he always knew that eventually Voldemort would kill Snape to be the true owner of the Elder Wand. Another casualty in his great big plan.


  * _“‘Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all, those who live without love. By returning, you may ensure that fewer souls are maimed, fewer families are torn apart. If that seems to you a worthy goal, then we say goodbye for the present.’”_ – That is a totally not manipulative thing to say. But I always remembered that – do not pity the dead, pity the living. Those are ones left behind.


  * _“‘Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?’”_ – This is the only time Rowling broke the fourth wall, but I think she did it in such a clever way. Of course this story only exists in our head… but that does not mean it is not real.




	36. Chapter 36: The Flaw in the Plan

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_  
**

**Chapter 36: The Flaw in the Plan**

  * _“‘My Lord … my Lord …’ It was Bellatrix’s voice, and she spoke as if to a lover.”_ – This line gets a complete new meaning after “Cursed Child”… *shudders*


  * _“Harry closed his eyes again and considered what he had seen. The Death Eaters had been huddled round Voldemort, who seemed to have fallen to the ground. Something had happened when he had hit Harry with the Killing Curse. Had Voldemort, too, collapsed? It seemed like it. And both of them had fallen briefly unconscious and both of them had now returned …”_ – Had Voldemort been in the afterlife as well? If so, what did he see? Harry had experienced comfort, but I guess whatever Voldemort saw would have left him terrified. Then again I can’t imagine him dying, as only another piece of his soul died. But perhaps this is enough to make him collapse, as only one other Horcrux is left. Or it is simply as Dumbledore explained: their destinies are tied together so close that Harry’s (temporarily) death would bring Voldemort to his knees as well.


  * _“Hands, softer than he had been expecting, touched Harry’s face, pulled back an eyelid, crept beneath his shirt, down to his chest and felt his heart. He could hear the woman’s fast breathing, her long hair tickled his face. He knew that she could feel the steady pounding of life against his ribs. ‘Is Draco alive? Is he in the castle?’ The whisper was barely audible; her lips were an inch from his ear, her head bent so low that her long hair shielded his face from the onlookers. ‘Yes,’ he breathed back. He felt the hand on his chest contract; her nails pierced him. Then it was withdrawn. She had sat up. ‘He is dead!’ Narcissa Malfoy called to the watchers. […]Still feigning death on the ground, he understood. Narcissa knew that the_ _only way she would be permitted to enter Hogwarts, and find her son, was as part of the conquering army. She no longer cared whether Voldemort won.”_ – The thing is, Narcissa still could have told the truth and be able to enter Hogwarts. Voldemort would have simply tried to kill Harry again, this time for real. And Harry of course could not know if Draco was still alive; the last time he saw him he was wandless after all. But I guess this scene is meant to be symbolic. It is another mother who saves Harry, saves him to save her own child. We start the story with Lily giving her life to protect her son and we end it with Narcissa risking her life to protect her son, saving Harry in the process. A mother’s love is what keeps Harry alive.


  * _“‘Harry Potter is dead. He was killed as he ran away, trying to save himself while you lay down your lives for him. We bring you his body as proof that your hero is gone.”_ – That is not what happened and it seems so childish to me that Voldemort had to tell this lie, that he portrayed Harry as a coward, when the truth is the exact opposite.


  * _“‘No!’ ‘No!’ ‘Harry! HARRY!’ Ron, Hermione and Ginny’s voices were worse than McGonagall’s; Harry wanted nothing more than to call back, yet he made himself lie silent, and their cries acted like a trigger, the crowd of survivors took up the cause, screaming and yelling abuse at the Death Eaters, […].”_ – It is hard to imagine how painful this must have been, for both Harry’s friends to see him (seemingly) dead, but for him as well, to pretend, to hear their screams, the terror in their voices, and to be not be able to reassure them that he is okay, that the war is not over yet.


  * _“In one swift, fluid motion Neville broke free of the Body-Bind Curse upon him; the flaming Hat fell off him and he drew from its depths something silver, with a glittering, rubied handle – The slash of the silver blade could not be heard over the roar of the oncoming crowd, or the sounds of the clashing giants, or of the stampeding centaurs, and yet it seemed to draw every eye. With a single stroke, Neville sliced off the great snake’s head, which spun high into the air, gleaming in the light flooding from the Entrance Hall, and Voldemort’s mouth was open in a scream of fury that nobody could hear, and the snake’s body thudded to the ground at his feet –“_ – You know they will tell stories about this for decades, about calm and friendly Professor Longbottom, who once was the leader of the rebellion, who killed Voldemort’s snake, there will be whispers every time he gets new students. Coolest dude ever.


  * _“The house-elves of Hogwarts swarmed into the Entrance Hall, screaming and waving carving knives and cleavers, and at their head, the locket of Regulus Black bouncing on his chest, was Kreacher, his bullfrog’s voice audible even above this din: ‘Fight! Fight! Fight for my master, defender of house-elves! Fight the Dark Lord, in the name of brave Regulus! Fight!’”_ – Finally Regulus gets some recognition. Though technically Harry is Kreacher’s master. But I love this moment, that it is Kreacher of all house-elves, that Voldemort left back to die, who is now fighting for Hogwarts, for Harry, but most of all for Regulus.


  * _“He changed course, running at Bellatrix rather than Voldemort, but before he had gone a few steps he was knocked sideways. ‘NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!’ Mrs Weasley threw off her cloak as she ran, freeing her arms. Bellatrix spun on the spot, roaring with laughter at the sight of her new challenger.”_ – We know what will happen after, and I’m not sure how to react to Molly killing Bellatrix. I completely understand why – she wanted to protect her children. And it shows us a complete different side from Molly, what a capable witch she is, that she was skilled enough to duel Bellatrix, to kill her ultimately. But I always wondered if afterwards Molly would have been treated like everyone else who used an Unforgiveable Curse (and Harry himself had used two of them), or if there would be a special law, that those who meant to defend themselves, who wanted to protect others, would be allowed to use those Curses during the war/the Battle of Hogwarts. Aurors had been given permission to kill after all. But where should we draw the line? Is it okay to kill, simply because Molly is ‘good’ and Bellatrix was ‘bad’? But it is possible to win this war even without killing? It is an interesting moral debate for sure.


  * _“‘You dare –’ ‘Yes, I dare,’ said Harry, ‘I know things you don’t know, Tom Riddle. I know lots of important things that you don’t. Want to hear some, before you make another big mistake?’”_ – I love Harry calling Voldemort Tom Riddle, the name of his much hated Muggle father, showing him how much he really knows about his past, but also refusing the choose the name Voldemort has given himself, the persona he has created. Now that all Horcruxes are gone he is nothing more than that: Tom Riddle, a mortal man again.


  * _“‘Snape’s Patronus was a doe,’ said Harry, ‘the same as my mother’s, because he loved her for nearly all of his life, from the time when they were children. You should have realised,’ he said, as he saw Voldemort’s nostrils flare, ‘he asked you to spare her life, didn’t he?’ ‘He desired her, that was all,’ sneered Voldemort, ‘but when she had gone, he agreed that there were other women, and of purer blood, worthier of him –’ ‘Of course he told you that,’ said Harry, ‘but he was Dumbledore’s spy from the moment you threatened her, and he’s been working against you ever since! Dumbledore was already dying when Snape finished him!’”_ – Snape asked Dumbledore to tell nobody his secret, that he was in love with Lily, but it took less than an hour for Harry to tell the whole world about it. And of course Voldemort wouldn’t have been able to understand Snape’s love, or any love at all, and the lengths people would go, the sacrifices they were willing to commit. Voldemort would have never doubted Snape because he never would have understood the reason why Snape betrayed him in the first place.


  * _“‘Yeah, it did,’ said Harry. ‘You’re right. But before you try to kill me, I’d advise you to think about what you’ve done … think, and try for some remorse, Riddle …’ ‘What is this?’ Of all the things that Harry had said to him, beyond any revelation or taunt, nothing had shocked Voldemort like this. Harry saw his pupils contract to thin slits, saw the skin around his eyes whiten. ‘It’s your one last chance,’ said Harry, ‘it’s all you’ve got left … I’ve seen what you’ll be otherwise … be a man … try … try for some remorse …’”_ – Remorse is the only thing that can heal a soul as maimed as Voldemort’s, that can bring back together the broken pieces, though he might die in the process. It is something Hermione once told Harry, and this Harry again, offering help to someone who is beyond any help. This shows his true genuine character.


  * _“‘Aren’t you listening? Snape never beat Dumbledore! Dumbledore’s death was planned between them! Dumbledore intended to die undefeated, the wand’s last true master! If all had gone as planned, the wand’s power would have died with him, because it had never been won from him!’”_ – Knowing Voldemort however he still would have killed Snape, as he did, and Dumbledore probably knew about this possibility, so he still thought that Snape’s death was a worthy casualty if the bigger plan succeeded.


  * _“‘But you’re too late,’ said Harry. ‘You’ve missed your chance. I got there first. I overpowered Draco weeks ago. I took this wand from him.’ Harry twitched the hawthorn wand, and he felt the eyes of everyone in the Hall upon it.”_ – Again this is something nobody could have planned, it is such a random moment, a fight between two teenage boys, not even using their wands, that will later decide over the fate of so many.


  * _“‘Avada Kedavra!’ ‘Expelliarmus!’ The bang was like a cannon-blast and the golden flames that erupted between them, at the dead centre of the circle they had been treading, marked the point where the spells collided. Harry saw Voldemort’s green jet meet his own spell, saw the Elder Wand fly high, dark against the sunrise, spinning across the enchanted ceiling like the head of Nagini, spinning through the air towards the master it would not kill, who had come to take full possession of it at last. And Harry, with the unerring skill of the Seeker, caught the wand in his free hand as Voldemort fell backwards, arms splayed, the slit pupils of the scarlet eyes rolling upwards. Tom Riddle hit the floor with a mundane finality, his body feeble and shrunken, the white hands empty, the snake-like face vacant and unknowing. Voldemort was dead, killed by his own rebounding curse, and Harry stood with two wands in his hand, staring down at his enemy’s shell.”_ – YEAH!!!!


  * _“Somewhere in the distance they could hear Peeves zooming through the corridors singing a victory song of his own composition: We did it, we bashed them, wee Potter’s the One, And Voldy’s gone mouldy, so now let’s have fun! ‘Really gives a feeling for the scope and tragedy of the thing, doesn’t it?’ said Ron, pushing open a door to let Harry and Hermione through.”_ – It does, actually.


  * _“‘That wand’s more trouble than it’s worth,’ said Harry. ‘And quite honestly,’ he turned away from the painted portraits, thinking now only of the four-poster bed lying waiting for him in Gryffindor Tower, and wondering whether Kreacher might bring him a sandwich there, ‘I’ve had enough trouble for a lifetime.’”_ – You know I always thought this would be a perfect ending. But, alas, there is more…




	37. Nineteen Years Later

**_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_   
**

**Nineteen Years Later**

  * I haven’t been the greatest fan of the epilogue, but I made my peace with it. To me the epilogue simply was not necessary. I don’t need to know who married who, how many children they got, and what their names are. To me that is left open to the imagination of the reader. And by putting those things in the book they obviously become canon. I guess this is Rowling’s happily ever after, and we should respect that. It seems like she wanted to drop as much information in those few pages as she could. Harry gets the life he has always wanted, he has a family of his own, is still close ton Ron and Hermione. He deserves it more than anyone else. And Fan Fiction writers everywhere can still ignore the epilogue, right?


  * _“‘Parked all right, then?’ Ron asked Harry. ‘I did. Hermione didn’t believe I could pass a Muggle driving test, did you? She thought I’d have to Confund the examiner.’ ‘No, I didn’t,’ said Hermione, ‘I had complete faith in you.’ ‘As a matter of fact, I did Confund him,’ Ron whispered to Harry, as together they lifted Albus’s trunk and owl on to the train. ‘I only forgot to look in the wing mirror, and let’s face it, I can use a Supersensory Charm for that.’”_ – I like this mix between Muggle and Wizarding World, because Hermione after all grew up in the Muggle World, so it would be important to her that her children know something about her world as well. And I guess the same might be true about Harry. Both worlds can co-exist.


  * _“‘So that’s little Scorpius,’ said Ron under his breath. ‘Make sure you beat him in every test, Rosie. Thank God you inherited your mother’s brains.’ ‘Ron, for heaven’s sake,’ said Hermione, half stern, half amused. ‘Don’t try to turn them against each other before they’ve even started school!’”_ – This new generation will enter Hogwarts with the same prejudices as Harry and Ron did, being told that Slytherin is the house of all evil wizards and the likes. I guess even if you try to avoid those stereotypes as parents, it is simply impossible in the Wizarding World to avoid this thinking in categories, and it will take more than one generation to overcome this kind of thinking.


  * _“‘Oh, it would be lovely if they got married!’ whispered Lily ecstatically. ‘Teddy would really be part of the family then!’ ‘He already comes round for dinner about four times a week,’ said Harry. ‘Why don’t we just invite him to live with us and have done with it?’”_ – I’m curious about the relationship between Harry and Teddy. Harry of course was only 17 when Teddy was born, so I don’t think he treated him as a parent, but more like a cool uncle.


  * _“‘Bye, Al,’ said Harry, as his son hugged him. ‘Don’t forget Hagrid’s invited you to tea next Friday. Don’t mess with Peeves. Don’t duel anyone ’til you’ve learned how. And don’t let James wind you up.’”_ – It is nice to know that Hagrid still takes care of all Potters, young and old. Also don’t duel anyone until you know how, because this is the opposite of what Harry did.


  * _“‘Albus Severus,’ Harry said quietly, so that nobody but Ginny could hear, and she was tactful enough to pretend to be waving to Rose, who was now on the train, ‘you were named for two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I ever knew.’ ‘But just say –’ ‘– then Slytherin house will have gained an excellent student, won’t it? It doesn’t matter to us, Al. But if it matters to you, you’ll be able to choose Gryffindor over Slytherin. The Sorting Hat takes your choice into account.’”_ – There have been enough jokes and discussion about the name Albus Severus, that of course there might have been men in Harry’s life more deserving to be named after, or that it seems that Ginny had no vote in naming their children, because they are all named after people important to Harry. The roles of Dumbledore and Snape in Harry’s life are questionable for sure, but they obviously matter greatly to Harry. He sees what they risked, what they sacrificed, to make sure Harry would succeed. But what is more important is Harry’s advice to his son, that it does not matter which house he will be sorted at, and that after all he still has a choice.


  * _“‘Why are they all staring?’ demanded Albus, as he and Rose craned round to look at the other students. ‘Don’t let it worry you,’ said Ron. ‘It’s me. I’m extremely famous.’”_ – I wonder how much exactly the children know about what their parents did, which role they played in the war etc. It must be exhausting at times to be starred at everywhere they go, to be famous themselves, simply because their parents are. But they will manage, just as Harry did.


  * _“‘He’ll be all right,’ murmured Ginny. As Harry looked at her, he lowered his hand absent-mindedly and touched the lightning scar on his forehead. ‘I know he will.’ The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well.”_ – And with that my friends I say goodbye. Thanks for joining me on this journey.




End file.
